Friday, February 01, 2013

Desert Clouds

Although our skies are often dramatic, it is unusual for a Tucson day to actually be cloudy, especially in the morning. Such a day occurred on my last rove. When I arrived at Tohono Chul Park at 8 AM, the sky was churning with clouds. It had rained over the weekend, and everything smelled damp and delicious. The cold, moist air seemed literally to caress my skin as I walked along the Desert View Trail, watching and listening to birds and looking for jackrabbits.

morning clouds 1-28-2013 8-06-56 AM 3264x2448

Evidence of the weekend’s rain could be seen all along the trail.

Damp trail 1-28-2013 8-08-23 AM 2590x1088

desert trail panorama 1-28-2013 8-09-17 AM 7616x2332

As I neared the end of the trail the clouds closed in and I could see only a tiny dot of blue sky.

A dot of blue 1-28-2013 8-17-25 AM 2448x3264

Just after I left the Park, the clouds opened up and it began to pour, a surprise for mid-January.

4 comments:

  1. Change is good! The clouds make a nice juxtaposition to the previous blue sky post!

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    1. That was the whole idea! Thanks for noticing!

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  2. And today the sun shines bright. Love both clouds and the sun. And I especially love the play they both make on the mountains. Yesterday as I was coming home and there was only an overcast sky and no sunshine, I noticed how two-dimensional the mountains looked. Still interesting and always beautiful.

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    1. Yes, the darkness changes the perspective. The mouth of Pima Canyon was clogged with clouds, and I got a few pictures of that, but there was no way to tell what you were looking at, so I didn't post them.

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