THURSDAY DECEMBER 19, 2002

Before sunrise. At first light, I got up and got dressed for a morning shoot. It was the coldest morning yet of my trip, it was hard to get out of the sleeping bag, and no wonder, a radio station later reported a low of 6 degrees that day.

Even in the cold I was pretty pleased with what I saw outside the tent. There was another light dusting of snow and the Bisti mud that caused me so much misery before, was now frozen solid and you could easily walk or drive over it

The Gateway wash was my destination today. What did it look like look with snow I wondered and shivered. The walk was starting to warm me just as the warmth from camp was fading, and soon I was in the heart of the gateway wash at sunrise. Many of the formations were still in shadow, but the thin dusting of snow pellets was still quite striking on the different shapes.

Now that I have the photographs of snow in the badlands, I can say it was a very worthwhile trip, even with all the trouble I had. I would still like to get more snow pictures in the Bisti and with deeper snow.