This scene could perhaps be the one Zane Grey describes in “ Down into the Desert.” Snow covers the campsite from the night before.

[click on the image to enlarge]

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Zane Grey Rainbow Bridge photograph collection, P0672, Box 1, Image 118)

In “Down into the Desert,” Grey shows that even at the end of April the Northern Arizona weather was unpredictable. Several pictures in this collection include snow covered landscapes, including the party’s first campsite. Grey notes: 

“It was work to pitch camp. That night the ground beneath our blankets was uneven and rocky; the cold wind swooped under the tents, and cracked the flaps. Somebody—I fear it was Lone Angler [Dr. J. Auburn Wiborn]—snored like a calliope. Some time in the night my tent almost collapsed. I was awakened by rain, and several times during the night I heard it, and finally realized that it was snow. The tent sagged. At dawn I got up. Cold! The world outside was white—a blizzard—with snow fleeting across the ground, and all the sky was obscured. We had to get out in the cold, get breakfast, pack and leave in the whirling snow. We froze.”[1]