Unleashing Winter’s Fury — and Beauty — on the Carrizo Plain

At times, nature can be so unpredictable and ephemeral. Being in the right spot to enjoy its splendor is a guessing game. However, when it comes to the Carrizo Plain, a unique, dramatic landscape was already in the bag. Those grasslands just required a little weather.

One of the more short-lived weather events across the Carrizo Plain is snow. Usually, a couple times each winter a light dusting of snow falls on the Caliente Mountains and Temblor Range. Storm clouds hang heavy over those rolling mountaintops, and by early to mid-morning the snow reveals itself. It’s then followed by tule fog: a cold, dense, wet blanket that hovers, hanging low below the mountains, but just above the plain. By the afternoon snow and fog is a memory across the grassland biome.

During this last recent bout of burly winter weather from February 23-25, I drove out to photograph winter’s fury on the Carrizo Plain. I almost didn’t recognize the typically stark landscape. Seventeen years of photographing these stunning grasslands, and I’ve never seen snow blanket this incredible habitat.