Over the holidays, I traveled to Southern Arizona where an unusually heavy snow fell, blanketing the high desert with more than five inches of snow. That is a rare event and one which I shared in my Desert Snowfall post. I returned at the end of February, and again the desert received another arctic blast - and the wide open, high desert grasslands were transformed into a vastness of soft and bright white snow, punctuated by desert plants and bounded by mountains.
As I drove between the mountain ranges and the vastness of the snow was laid out before me, I was transfixed. This is not how this landscape is supposed to look. I know it won’t look this way for very long. The desert sun is strong and cold temperatures are defeated swiftly and without remorse. This is my only chance to capture this unlikely and unusual landscape.
There are not many roads in this area. And most of those off the main highway appear covered in snow and impassable. But I found a couple of spots in and around the small town of Sonoita to park and take in the landscape.
The snow muffles an already quiet desert. The undisturbed snow sits on the land like the calm waters of a mountain lake. The ripples across the surface reveal the unevenness of the land beneath. Blades of tall grass, and yucca pierce the blanket of white.
As someone who spent a lot of time in the desert, snow is still something of a phenomenon. I see it more often now that I live in the Pacific Northwest, but it still gives me pause. I love seeing it atop mountain peaks, but I’d rather not be in it. For the desert to be covered in snow to this degree, though, is an opportunity, as a photographer, not to be passed up. For the desert to covered in snow like this more than once in a single season, is very rare. For both events to occur while I was visiting… maybe I have some kind of unknown superpower! Nevertheless, capturing the temporary snow fallen on the permanent desert mountains was a special experience.