Eastern Sunsets!

The sun rises to the east, and the sun sets to west. We all know this,right? But tonight as I was leaving Bear Lake, where I spent my Labor Day weekend with a friend, I saw the most glorious eastern sunset. Beautiful pink rainbow sky, it truly looked like the sun had set on the east side of the lake. I sent the picture to my friend and joked about the sun setting to the east. Being a scientist he had to tell me that that the sun didn't set in the east (duh! LOL) and that I was really seeing a reflection. Besides being a scientist my friend is also Japanese, and he told my that the Japanese name for this phenomena is 'yuuyake'. Being a scientist type as well I had to do a little research, as I knew no simple English word that described this... what I found out was that the dark blue band just about the horizon, is the "Earth Shadow" , and the pinkish rainbow of reflected light is the "Belt of Venus". I found a nice explanation of the phenomenon here. Fun new knowledge for me tonight!

Touring the northlands...

Took a late afternoon jaunt north to the hot springs today. Enjoyed my 1/2 mile bikram swim (my name for lap swimming in 100 degree water). Enjoyed my soak and had few nice conversations. Thunder and lightning forced an early departure and as I was driving home a crazy storm dumped hail and sleet and snow. Who expects snow covered roads in April? As I approached the exit to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge a bright spot opened in the sky to the west and beckoned me off of the highway... where I was greeted by a rainbow and beautiful skies for an impromptu photo safari!

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Pictures worth a thousand words.....

Some pictures from my deck tonight. Yeah, I am really, really, lucky to be able to enjoy this on regular basis! I love the way the clouds began to disperse in the second shot....

Crossing Nevada...

Last night I chased a rainbow across the Nevada desert....
I'm sure most people would think I'm crazy for saying this, but I actually really like driving across Nevada. I find the desert beautiful, and I love the wide open skys and far off mountain vistas that are rarely marred with man made structures.

Driving east across Nevada last night we spied a rainbow, or should I say half a rainbow, the left half, colorful, broad and bright and stretching up to the sky. I would have loved to snap a picture but one thing about driving through Nevada is that that exits and highway pull offs are few and far between. As we drove east the rainbow faded and and brightened several times as we chased it across the state. It made for a most pleasurable drive. It was evening and as the sun began to set the low hanging clouds of the weather system that caused the rainbow also caused the the sun to refract and bask the the landscape in an almost eerie golden glow. With the rainbow still ahead of us I finally spied an exit... one of those random exits that appears to go no where, so we stopped for a photo op. From this vantage we could take in the full arc of the rainbow, now double, in the this crazy golden light. The pictures don't begin to capture the beauty...




But then the thunder clapped and raindrops started falling and we thought better of standing outside in the open, so we hopped back in the car and continued east. In not many miles there was another ranch exit and we braved the weather for a few moments to get a few more pictures of the spectacular sunset storm.


And no, we never did find that pot of gold... but our stop for the night was at Winnemucca, Nevada where we got a cheap room at a casino.... and 2 coupons for free drinks in the bar. That's as close to pot of gold we could get. Since as of Monday Matt is officially an adult we went to the lounge for gin and tonics and to listen to the band. As we sat a guy walked up to us... a guy I'm acquainted with from the singles group in Salt Lake City.... so what's the probability of running into someone you know when your hanging out in one of several town casinos in a town more than 5 hours from home? (You should always know your probabilities when playing at a casino) 100% I guess! Wanna bet?

And it continues...

.... Winter that is. Scenes from my morning, noon hour and evening.....