We are deep into the calendar and meteorological season of autumn, also known as fall.  It’s time for the leaves to change color in the higher elevations and the higher latitudes.  We behold a glorious wealth of yellow, gold, orange, and even red tones emerge from the normally green leaves of deciduous trees.  It’s time to pull out the camera and get to work saving these scenes for years to come.  Come learn about a Bryce Canyon autumn with me.

The days are shortening and the overall temperature is dropping, but there’s still a few good days and sights worth seeing.  Bryce Canyon, being at the top of mountains, experiences many of these changes sooner than lower elevations do.  However, because of its position in the mountains, you don’t see many deciduous trees in the park.  In fact, you do need to know where to go to even see them.  Most of the trees you will see are evergreens.  They will not change the color of their needles with the season.  So, the warm colors of autumn are often lost in this national park save for the color of the rocks themselves.

I keep trying to find the right place to capture such seasonal landscape photos at Bryce.  It’s not easy.  Still, I managed to find something this time.  In fact, it was a lucky find right in front of one of the more prominent features in the park: the Natural Bridge.  This young deciduous tree (a quaky aspen I believe, though I could be wrong there) is a recent addition to the scene.  It popped up a couple years ago or so.  I’m sure that this year’s extra moisture helped it grow substantially.  But, I really couldn’t ask for a better autumn tree this year.  As you can see, it displays all 3 prominent autumn colors: yellow, orange, and red.

I lucked into this shot as I was scouting out for the upcoming annular eclipse.  For that day, I needed to decide where to stand.  During that decision-making, I discovered this beautiful scene.  So, I came back prepared with my camera and more time the next day.  Thankfully, there were clear enough skies that I could also incorporate some indirect glow from the setting sun in the frame too.  I really couldn’t wait too long with this shot as the season will drop off rapidly one day.  We can never tell when, but one day we will wake up and it will be cold until May sometime.  When that happens, these autumn leaves are not long for the trees.

So, this concludes this round of autumn in Bryce Canyon.  Perhaps I’ll attempt something again at Bryce this season besides the eclipse.  We’ll see.  It does depend on a few factors.  Until then, I hope that you enjoy this uncommon view of autumn leaves at Bryce Canyon’s Natural Bridge.