Hiking through Zion’s breathtaking trails, eyes lit with wonder and awe, I capture some points of popular interest.

The sky is a vibrant blue, the sun highlights the massive valley wall, and the water reflects this immense beauty, this expanse of sky and mountain.

Up on the famous Angel’s Landing hike, we peer down into a sheer drop, plummeting to the canyon floor, where a winding road takes tourists through the park.

I tempt my fate just a little as I approach the edge of the cliff, enjoying that same feeling drawn by sport climbing, that spark of adrenaline.

At the end of the tall ridge, little ground squirrels run in and out of hidden fissures and boulders. The little guys are unafraid to eventually eat some granola right out of our fingers, climbing up my back and arms to do so.

Off another trail, I use an iPhone camera trick to capture a horizontal panoramic shot as my friend Megan runs from one side of the frame to the other just in time. The results were incredible. In a similar photo, she stands in the middle of the narrows, water up to the waist, as the deep canyon walls rise above her frame.

The narrows were empty on our way back to the landing, a rare experience. The water is lower in October than in other months, and the other tourists return to work and school on a Wednesday.

We venture to the edge of the park before we head back to Salt Lake, looking out and over the surreal rock formations, carved out by water, wind, and time.

The moments these photos were captured were a snapshot in time, the photo being the key to a portal in time. Photography truly is a time machine.

To experience Zion again just through a simple photograph and some visualization meditation, I can re-live those moments in time, an incredibly rare and yet unreal experience.