Simple

Pictures of clouds can seem so humdrum.  Like rainbows and flowers, clouds can be used to denote something pleasant and relaxing, a sight one can enjoy without really looking at it.  But as with rainbows and flowers, and so many other things in the natural world, when I’m confronted with a striking array of clouds, I’m moved and awestruck.

Clouds are so simple and seemingly insubstantial:  they’re just water vapor, after all.   Yet, just think of how important they are.  They can ruin a picnic or help grow crops, make for a good or bad ski season, accompany a disaster like a hurricane or tornado– or just give a hiker a break on a hot, sunny day.

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Clouds of Colorado

sunrise over Golden

I used to rave over the skies of Klamath Falls, and now I have to admit the skies over Golden are pretty special, too.  They’re different– Klamath Falls had such an open, expansive feel to it, while Golden is tucked in so close to the foothills that you can’t see what’s coming until it’s here.

The variety of clouds are more diverse here, because of the different kinds of airflow that occur above peaks as high and dense as the Rockies.  So, we get the puffies (cumulus), and thin smearies (stratus), but also lots of clouds that are neither, such as lenticular clouds.

cumulus over Golden

Okay, so I don’t have any good lenticular photos from Colorado.  But you can see one in this post from last year.  Meanwhile, enjoy the play of sunset on some more cumuli:

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Sunsets

Topsail Hill State Park, Destin, FL

As I get to the end of the long, wander-y part of this road trip, I am thinking back on all of the beautiful sights we saw: landscapes, seascapes, birds, people we love, vast expanses of [fill in the blank-- sand, trees, water, mountain, or whatever].

I’m sitting in a motel in Radford, Virginia, happy to be back amongst mountains, trepidatiously excited about the snow on the ground, and consumed by a homeward-bound drive that is pushing me to get all the way to Syracuse by the end of the day.

Since I didn’t keep up the blog as a travelogue, I will probably now make you suffer through a series of thematic posts.  Today’s theme is sunsets.  Everywhere we traveled, we saw impressive, pretty, weird, and lovely sunsets.  I used to think that Klamath Falls had the most consistently beautiful sunsets of anyplace I had ever been, but now that I see the smattering of them from all over the country, I realize that they are everywhere!  So, here are some examples for your enjoyment:

Harbor, Half Moon Bay, CA

So much for the water shots for a moment.  Here’s one over dry land.

Caprock Canyons State Park, TX (actually a sunrise!)

somewhere between Memphis and the Alabama border

pier and pelicans at Naples, FL

Last night’s sunset was spectacular, as far as I could tell by repeatedly checking my rear-view mirror while driving I-85 through South Carolina.  I thought I should have stopped to enjoy it.  All the more reason to get off this computer, jump in the car, and drive the rest of the way to Syracuse so I can stay in one place for a few days!

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