Roadtrip Images

Photography in the Narrows is a special experience. The light, the colors and the textures combine for one of the most unique landscape photography locations on the planet.

The Narrows in Zion National Park is a slot canyon created by the Virgin River slicing through many layers of sandstone. Some of the near vertical canyon walls are over 1000 feet high with the river running from canyon wall to canyon wall. One section in particular is called Wall Street because of this feature. Much of the canyon cutting is caused by flash floods that race down the canyon carrying trees and boulders along with it. A huge amount of sediment is carried downstream with these floods and the river bed is redefined each time they occur. These flash floods can also be fatal events for any hikers that don’t heed the warnings and are caught in the Narrows during a flood. There’s no place to run to if you’re unlucky enough to be in there when the river rises quickly.

For photographers the attraction to the Narrows comes from the light. Reflected light to be specific. During a cloudless day, the sunlight hits one face of the canyon wall and gets reflected onto the opposite face. Since the canyon walls are sandstone and naturally reddish/brown in color the reflected light picks up that color cast and makes the opposite side glow in rich warm light. It’s an amazing scene. Because the river twists and turns its way through the canyon, the trick is knowing which canyon walls will glow and at what time. In many cases, when a particularly nice scene is in view, I’ll wait for quite awhile to see what the light is going to do. But then, there’s always something else just around the next corner so you tend to keep moving to make sure you don’t miss a better scene elsewhere. We’ve hiked the Narrows six times now and never grow tired of it. A post from a previous trip we made can be found here.

An additional element for the Narrows is Fall color. There are sections of the Narrows where small cottonwood trees have taken root and these trees turn a brilliant yellow during Fall color. Naturally this is great time to Hike the Narrows. One item to note though is that most of the hike is actually in the river so some additional gear is required.

Many people that hike the Narrows in the summer just do it in shorts and an old pair of athletic shoes. During the off season the water is just too cold for this so waders of some sort are needed. Several outfitters in the nearby town of Springdale rent the waders and water shoes if you’re only doing the Narrows once. Zion Outfitters is one such store. If you plan to go multiple times it may make sense to buy your own gear as we did. The other factor in hiking the Narrows is that the river bottom is strewn with large rocks. These rocks can be slippery so a fall into the water is a real possibility. The water isn’t very deep so the only real risk is getting your camera gear wet. I put all my stuff into dry bags which then go into my backpack. We also have trekking poles to help with stability as you pick your way through all the submerged rocks on the riverbed. The outfitters in town rent a heavy walking stick for this purpose.

I see many people hiking the Narrows with cameras on a strap around their necks. This makes for quick access and traveling light I suppose but one slip and in the river it goes. Not only does it get submerged but it may also smash against the rocks that are a constant on this hike. We’ve hiked the narrows six times now and fortunately haven’t fallen yet but I don’t take that chance. I keep my stuff in dry bags. Yes it takes time to pull it out of the backpack and get set up but I’ll take that over the one time I slip and fall into the water with a camera hanging around my neck. That’s some very expensive gear that will need to be sent in for repair should that happen. Not to mention the time I’m without that gear while it’s being repaired.

I have a backpack insert that holds a camera body and two lenses. That’s all I need for this hike. That insert then goes into a dry bag. Another dry bag holds all the filters, batteries, lens cloths and other odds and ends that I don’t want to get wet.

I also still use a tripod for all my shots in the Narrows. Most of the shots I take are long exposures so I can blur the moving water. A tripod is a must. It can also be dark in the canyon at times so exposure times can be lengthy. Yes the tripod gets wet. Yes the water gets inside the tripod legs. After the hike my tripod drains water for quite awhile. That goes with the territory. I do take the time after the hike to take the tripod legs apart and dry everything out and then re-lube the lock collars.

We start this hike first thing in the morning and are typically on the first bus in. The photograph above was one of those “let’s keep moving events”. We had stopped at several locations prior to seeing that scene and I pulled out the camera gear to make a photograph each time. By mid-morning the sunlight was starting to penetrate deeper into the canyon. As we came around the next corner we saw the glow. One of the canyon walls was just radiating a beautiful shade of reddish-orange. Fortunately there was also a strip of cottonwood trees on that same side that had some wonderful light on them as well. It made for a very nice scene so we hurried to find a place to set up. I like finding a section of small rapids over some rocks to use as a foreground so I get into the water just downstream. I arranged the composition to include the rapids and as much of the glowing canyon wall as I could. This required a fairly wide angle lens. I had to be careful not to include any sky as this would just get blown out with no detail whatsoever. Another important element was the dark canyon wall on the left. It provided some nice contrast against the glowing wall on the right side of the frame.

Most of the time that I’m shooting water I have a polarizer on the lens to cut down the glare from the surface as well as the off the wet rocks. This time was no different. It also added enough neutral density to drag the shutter out to several seconds. Perfect for blurring the moving water. Aperture was f/11 and ISO was set at 40 to ensure a noise free image.

The image below was one of the scenes we stopped at prior to the featured shot above.

Two weeks prior to this hike we were also in the Narrows. I had a specific objective of shooting an iconic boulder I saw a number of years ago. It was our first trip into the Narrows and I was shooting large format film back then. We hiked all the way into the Wall Street section and we came upon a large boulder in the river. Looking back on the boulder from upstream it seemed to fit into an alcove in the canyon wall. It was a nice composition. There was some glow already occurring so I had to set up my gear fast. Large format film and fast generally don’t go together. Thankfully, I was able to get the shot before the glow faded. It didn’t last long. I hadn’t photographed that boulder since and I wanted to get back in there to capture it again. This time on my Nikon D850.

There was only one problem. I didn’t remember what time the glow occurred. So, we got on the first bus into the canyon and hiked all the way to the boulder without stopping. We got there around 10 AM. There was already another photographer set up there with the same thought in mind. He had obtained a photography permit to be able to drive back to the Temple of Sinawava in his personal vehicle so he was in before the first bus. I set up near by and composed the photograph. And then we waited for the glow. And we waited. And waited. The glow didn’t happen till after 3:00 PM. Fortunately we packed a lunch. We also attracted quite a bit of attention with three tripods set up on the same subject. Everyone wanted to know what we expected to see. The glow finally showed up but it wasn’t as intense as my previous visit. It was still worth the wait. The third tripod had our little Nikon D5600 set up in landscape or horizontal mode. My D850 was in a portrait or vertical composition. I like the landscape mode image better. I’ve included it below.

Zion National Park is an amazing place and the Narrows is one of a kind. If you come to Zion, make an effort to hike it. You won’t be sorry. Just make sure you rent or buy the gear to do it comfortably. Also take a tripod along so that you can get long exposure images. It makes a huge difference in the end result.

Zion was a last minute visit for us this year. We almost didn’t go. The west side campgrounds were all booked up due to the construction in the main campground, Watchman. We happened to find a campground with full hook ups outside the east entrance of the park with availability so we booked a spot. We ended up staying for three weeks. That’s what’s nice about this full time travel lifestyle. We can make last minute changes in plans and stay for as long as we need to.

Zion is one of our favorite places. We’ll definitely be back for more.

As always, you can see higher resolution images on our Facebook page. Please give us a like while you’re there.

Nikon D850 with Nikkor 16-35mm at 18mm. f/11 at 4 seconds. ISO 40 for the featured image.