What a difference the Sun makes!...

Yesterday the Sun was elusive and occasional, with winds and dust. Today the Navajo spirit of hospitality returned, signified by a blazing Sun and the winds dying down.

Moreover, they were kind enough to plant a busload of schoolkids to show the size of the span under the Owachomo Bridge. Very kind. Children and park rangers look tiny under a 200-foot high span, but they are there. They even sat still. I took complete advantage...

At least I got to drive on my favorite road again...

As you will read in the posts below, the weather can turn in a hurry here. Still, driving to Natural bridges requires going up the Moki Dugway, then driving straight ahead for forty miles.

The Moki Dugway is so dramatic that it's really hard to resist stopping and trying to photograph it.

Despite the ugly weather, treasures...

The weather really grew foul--scudding clouds and high winds, At one point, the wind blew the car door shut on my leg and I had momentary visions of a Pegleg Pete pirate costume. My blood is the squirty kind.

Survived that and despite the conditions raced up my favorite road, the Moki Dugway, to Natural Bridges National Monument. three immense bridges have been carved by the Colorado River.

For those who like to get into the scientific weeds, arches are formed by freezing and melting water in cracks in the sandstone, bridges are formed by river erosion--though they look much the same. These are big--over 200 feet high...

I knew the weather was too good to last

Last evening, big clouds formed, and the wind picked up. We waited for the clouds to part for the full Moon, but it was well up before it broke out of the cloud bank.

As a parting grace, a break in the western clouds allowed the setting sun to hit the Mittens and Merrick Butte. Magic

The Valley of the Gods and the Moki Dugway

The Valley of the Gods, near Mexican Hat, Utah, lies at the foot of a massive escarpment. At the West end of the valley is the amazing road up to the top of the cliff called the Moki Dugway. This drive is 'an experience,' as they say. Meeting an overloaded pickup with a big trailer adds to the terror.



I stuck my video camera out the window all the way back down. Ought to be something to see.



As for the Valley of the Gods, it is a smaller brother to Monument Valley formed by the same forces.

A Giant Fish in Monument Valley?

I came around a corner in Monument Valley today, and towering above me was an enormous--well, either a scorpionfish or a frogfish. I put one of each up for comparison, but you can decide which. Just goes to show that Mother Nature has an impish sense of humor...

Later, the not-quite-full Moon came up, and cars down in the valley turned on their lights.

Magic on every side!

A bomber flies through Monument Valley

I drove this morning from Las Vegas to Monument Valley, arriving with plenty of sun left. I do always tell people that I am the luckiest man on the planet, and here is another example of my guardian angels' superb work.

As I was setting up some shots of West and East Mitten and Merrick Buttes, what do I see but a huge bomber, flying low, coming right toward me.

Since I had my video camera on my tripod, I jumped to that and have a complete flyby with this magnificent landscape and the bomber soaring past me in a fifteen or twenty second pass.

I don't have my video editing program on this laptop, but when I get home, I think I know what will be the star of the show...