Unqualified Happiness

I knew this morning as I was dropping off kids to school, that this would be a photographic day in Snow Canyon.  While the city was enshrouded in fog, I could tell that in the higher elevations the fog was lifting and above the mists was a bluer-than-blue sky.

I was still in my pj's, so I hurried home, changed and headed back out to see if my pocket-sized camera could do justice to what I might see.

It was still completely fogged in where I parked in the canyon.  As I was getting out of my car a hiking guide and his entourage were headed back to their van, having just spent two hours hiking in practical darkness. The man approached me and told me I was in for a disappointing hike.  The trails were wet and slippery and there was no visual bearing due to the heavy fog.  He thought it might be better if I tried again tomorrow.

I was pretty certain I'd seen blue sky earlier and wanted to be there when the grey burned off.  Off I went through the mists.  And only 30 minutes into my first part of the climb...it happened.  The mists lifted.

It was then I knew I was unqualified to be trying to capture what I was seeing.

Swirling clouds and droplets of mist all around me.  Pocket-sized, point-and -shoot camera is very inadequate.

Because of the damp air, the canyon smells incredible, unreal.

I wasn't out long...about an hour and a half.  By the end of my hike the clouds had almost completely lifted and the midday-harsh sun had obliterated the best light.  I kept thinking how unfortunate that the 5 or 6 van loads of people I saw leaving the canyon that morning had missed what I'd seen.  If they'd only come a couple of hours later...

Happiness today was found in an unscheduled, solo hike in the translucent canyon.