Nature Friday - The Wrath and Beauty of Mother Nature

Picking up from yesterday... Shyla and I had a fabulous time playing on the red rock at sunset on a stormy evening in Utah.

Shyla seemed to be keeping "an eye" on a storm that was sneaking up on us but I had scarcely noticed.

Suddenly, Shyla let me know that the thunder storm was upon us. Soon thereafter, the Runner was yelling "get down, get down, there's lightning". So, we jogged downward on the steep and now wet slickrock as rain pelted down around us. I stopped a few times to look at the clouds that were descending onto the top of the slickrock where we'd just been.

Then it began to rain really hard. The thunder rattled my bones. The too-short pauses between the flashes of light and the thunder booms made my heart accelerate. But the light was surreal. I stopped for another photo. It was so beautiful as the storm arrived.

After that photo, I hustled down further for a while with no more photo stops. Fortunately, the storm seemed to be veering around us. The pauses between the flashes of lightning and the booms of thunder lengthened.

It was suddenly eerily dark with a gargantuan cloud almost upon us.

I quickly changed to a wider lens because the cloud was filling the whole horizon.

The cloud looked organized in a way that I never get to see in the mountains due to the ridges and valleys. The bolts of lightning zig-zagged within the cloud.  We were now down as low as we could be and the rain was letting up so we were happy to stop and observe. Oddly, it seemed to get lighter all of a sudden even though the sun was close to setting.

Then, the Runner pointed behind us.... an incredible sunset!!!!


We stood in the low spot, watching all directions, in awe of the paintings that Mother Nature can create. After the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky became even more beautiful.

When we looked back toward the storm cloud, it had faded and was undoubtedly moving past us, no longer a threat.

It was an inspiring evening in the desert. I love the desert more than I dreamed that I would.

Thanks to the LLB Gang for hosting the Nature Friday Blog Hop.