It was a good winter for Arizona, unexpectedly so. A casual observation of the seasonal forecasts at the start indicated we were going to be in for a warmer, drier winter. It seems for a while now that warm, dry winters are the rule rather than the exception, so this news was received with a bit of resignation. I figured we’d have to content ourselves with the wet summer and once again hope the fire season won’t be bad. Fortunately, the forecasts proved to be wrong. As of writing this the Salt and Verde reservoirs are full, and flows are still strong. The Salt River has actually been flowing significantly through Phoenix for the first time in a long time.
Winter has since passed us by, and spring, too. It’s that time of the year when the nights are pleasantly cool and the afternoon temperatures warm enough to lull you into a springtime nap. Soon enough the full heat of summer will be here, and we’ll look back fondly on the snowscapes of the previous winter.
I took this picture along Horton Creek after one of the many snowstorms early in the season. The creek was flowing heavy with snowmelt and the banks on either side had plenty of ice and snow. I like the simple lines and colors of this composition. The sunlight sparkled off the icy crust adding interesting highlights and the rolling surface provided some depth to the image.