“Sergio’s Grace”

Location: Zion National Park, Utah (2018)

Recent rains create a waterfall at the Lower Emerald Pools in Zion National Park.

I titled this photograph after the Hurricane and subsequent Tropical Storm, Sergio, whose rain created a flash flood that formed the waterfalls at Lower Emerald Pools.

The hiking trail to the waterfall ebbs and flows over the reddish-brown earth as you wonder why so many people are here. Seclusion you will not find, but great natural beauty you hope to see.

Trekking through pockets of mud, you wonder if you’ll have to bail your shoes out or if you’ll slip and fall. Maybe a stranger will catch your fall?

But mercifully, your journey is only half a mile. You see hear the falls before you see them. And next thing you know you’re stopped behind a wall of people with their camera phones taking pictures of the waterfall.

The beauty of the waterfall and the relative placidness of the moment was a peaceful respite from the rain and winds that had caused flash flooding just hours earlier.

This is Sergio’s destructive grace.