Zion Canyon area, Utah, USA, 22nd October 2014.

Dawn at Lava Point, Zion National Park….

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Coming back down from the viewpoint after dawn, this is a view from Wildcat Trail Head.

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These are landscapes on a majestic scale.

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Further on the way back, I’m not sure exactly where, this is a view from the road…..

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Back in Zion Canyon proper, this is a view of the top of the cliffs.  The sandstone cliffs here are 3,000 feet high (or 900 metres).

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I stopped to take a photograph and the others kept on going.  Though there’s just the one valley here, they must have gone on a side trail because I walked on past them.

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I ended up walking in The Narrows.  This is potentially a very dangerous place because heavy rain 20 miles away can cause a flash flood.  Suddenly, there is raging water, a massive increase in the water level and nowhere to hide.  These events can particularly happen in summer.

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Someone drowned in the Narrows in September 2014, a month before I was there.  Two people died in 2010 trying to go down the river on a log raft.  Two drowned in 1998 and five boy scouts died in a flash flood in the 1961.

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Back out of The Narrows, still in Zion Canyon.

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This is a blue heron, who didn’t appear to be catching any fish.

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A section of the canyon wall.  If in Afghanistan, maybe a suitable place to carve a replacement for the giant Bhuddas of Bamiyan.

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Back at the bridge, with the light fading….

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