Rock Sculptures and Beautiful Skies

One place that we stayed in the desert had the most intricately sculpted very tall canyon walls. The yellow leaves of the cotton woods almost disappeared against the backdrop of the red walls.

The red rock walls form huge and wide canyons.

The wind whipping through the canyons has eroded away huge quantities of rock in places, leaving behind only the hardest rock in the form of huge buttes that reach for the sky.

Even the sandy ground in this area holds secrets. This intricate nest was built by chimney bees. The tube leading up and out of the underground nest was only a centimeter tall and a half centimeter across. After I saw one of these, I saw them everywhere!

One fun mountain bike ride was along a rim that gave me very long views!

Due to the extremely short days, I sometimes was still out as the sun set. That was a sight to behold!

When I was back in camp, the sky would sometimes light up as the sun dipped below the horizon.

And the red walls near us would glow.

Then the stars would emerge, incliuding the Milky Way. The canyon walls in this photo are the same ones as in the daylight photo just above.

I made a very short time lapse video of the sky as the Milky Way floated across the sky and clouds floated in front of it.

We are joining our friends from the LLB Gang for Nature Friday!