See Beautiful - The Desert Edition

Today is the See Beautiful Blog Hop (hosted by Sugar) so I picked out a few of my favorite photos from our desert trip. I love the red rock sculptures designed by eons of wind and water shaping them.

The desert also has incredible sunsets like this next one that silhouettes a canyon wall.

As we stopped to watch it while we hiked on the other wall of the canyon, Shyla stood atop a rock, giving me a fun photographic opportunity.

When we camped almost inside a canyon, we didn't get to see the brilliant glow of the setting sun because the canyon walls blocked it.

But we did go to another site where the light was breath-taking and the desert terrain was dramatic, with huge towers rising from the ground.

From our perch at the base of a tower, we could survey a long distance to the west.

We patiently watched the sunset, giving thanks for Nature's beauty.

R also gave thanks.

As many of you know, another part of the desert that I find beautiful is the zillions of stars that are visible in the dark sky.

At our last campsite of the trip, I made a time lapse series of the stars. If you want to, you can see how the stars moved over the course of 2 hours in this short time lapse video. You can watch it at Youtube if you have trouble viewing it here.

Here was the final photo, after I stacked all the exposures together. I find the desert sky to be mesmerizing because there are more stars than I can fathom.

I love our mountains but I've come to love the desert too. I feel lucky that I live in a place where I can spend time in both. And, I feel lucky that I have an amazing "pack" to share it with!