Sedona's red rock country has been a protected landscape since the late twentieth century, with much of the surrounding terrain managed as part of the Coconino National Forest and the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness. The formations took shape over millions of years of sediment deposit and erosion, and the area holds deep significance for several Indigenous peoples of the Southwest. It became widely known as an arts destination in the mid-twentieth century, drawing landscape painters and later photographers drawn by the quality of the light.

Snow falls in Sedona only a handful of times each year, most often between December and February, and it rarely lingers past a day or two — making this particular view one of the most fleeting in the American Southwest.