Conforming Canopy
A beautiful tree in full fall color clinging to a steep hillside below one of the many sandstone cliff walls of Zion National Park. Photographed on my 4x5 large format film camera. Climbing around these hillsides is much more difficult than this photo depicts. Over the past few years I've learned to explore off the beaten path, as Zion gets quite crowded in the main areas. This has led to many discoveries, such as this hillside which receives beautiful reflected light in the late morning from two adjacent sandstone cliffs similar to the one you see here. The end result is soft, warm light, like that which you see here. What really drew me to this tree, however, was how the canopy seemingly mirrors the slope below it. Is it temperature thing? Humidity? It's so fascinating to me how these trees survive these harsh climates.
