Nature: Our Pack in the Desert

While we were in the Utah desert, we discovered an area of slickrock where we adored walking in the evenings.

One of my favorite things about it was that it got full sunlight at about sunset time. As the Runner walked in front of me at almost exactly sunset, I realized that it was an opportunity to make a couple of fun photos. In this one, I captured the setting sun perfectly placed for a sun star. If you look hard, you can see R to the left of the Runner.

And here are the two of them standing together with the sun setting next to them.

One of the afternoons that we were on those slickrock hills, we saw an incredible sunset. This is one extra photo that I didn't show you previously. It truly was one of the most awe-inspiring sunsets that I've ever seen.

As dusk fell, we hiked quickly back to K's Rock, where the sky was still glowing!

Based on that cloud cover, I predicted that we wouldn't see the stars that night. However, I set up my camera before going to sleep, just in case I was wrong. And I was very wrong. The clouds cleared out just after 10PM, and the sky stayed clear all night.

Please forgive me - I am still learning how to make time lapse videos, and I'm guessing that you're getting tired of them. If you do feel like watching, here is a night of the Milky Way compressed into 30 seconds. I figured out how to incorporate an effect that makes it seem like the camera was moving. I am wondering if you noticed or liked that effect? Here is the video.

Thank you to our friends at LLB for hosting the Nature Blog Hop.