April 4, 2014
Badlands With Snow in the Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico

I had a wonderful surprise yesterday morning in the Bisti Wilderness — snow! It was snowing lightly when I headed out into the badlands before sunrise, and there was about an inch and a half (4cm) of snow already on the ground. I went to one of my favorite locations and made some images while avoiding the sky which had a solid, featureless cloud cover. After the snow stopped and the clouds began to break, the snow started to melt faster and the ground started to get soft so I moved away from the well-known area so I hopefully wouldn't leave any footprints for the next visitors. I turned my attention to some nearby rocks and made compositions to take advantage of the breaking clouds like this image. On my way back to the RV, I crossed one area where the mud was just like ice. I started to slip with my left foot and as I tried to steady myself, my right foot started slipping. So, I just froze and slid around on the mud for a while — how exciting! I was more careful on the rest of the way back, especially when crossing the really slippery kind of mud.