Moonlight can do strange and wondrous things if you’re lucky enough to be down in the bottom of the canyons under a full moon. The small ravines and gully’s that filter down to the canyon bottom are filled up with the many different grasses that grow here because this is where the water is when there is any.

During the daylight hours these same grasses will appear colorless and faded due to the relentless beating of the sun, but at night when the moon comes out and shines its silvery light on these pockets of splendor they glow with an earthly luminance that equals the best lit studio. Nothing beats Mother Nature when she wants to show off her handiwork.

This vignette was found at the bottom of an unnamed canyon in Canyonlands National Park earlier one evening as the walls blocked the last of the daylight and the full moon rose early. There wasn’t time for setting up a formal shot as the dark was closing in and there was a hair-raising drive to climb out of the canyon before full darkness fell.

So a couple of grab shots taken out of the vehicle window were all there was time for, in fact only two images were taken, but that is often how these things happen. You see beauty, you snap the shutter and you move on. That brief moment lives on in this image for as long as people want to look at it. Which I hope is a long time.