Winter Heat in the Needles
The beginning of March brought the first of an unrelenting series of unseasonable heatwaves this month to the southwest. With less than stellar skiing conditions in the mountains this season (Colorado's lowest winter of snowfall on record), we instead took advantage of the unseasonable heat to do a two-night backpack trip in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah. It was pleasant, if a bit unsettling, to enjoy such warm temps during what would "normally" still be winter season, though it's becoming clearer every year that the new normal is shorter winters and longer droughts.
The warm glow of pre-sunrise illuminates jagged sandstone needles, reflected in a slickrock pothole.
A hiker is dwarfed by the scale of a massive tunnel between huge sandstone blocks near the Joint Trail in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in Utah.
Warm sunset light shines on the sandstone needles and sagebrush of Chesler Park in early March.
