Today was a very busy day.
It was more like the trips we've done in the past. We got up this morning for sunrise
only to discover that sunrise had been cancelled because of clouds. We decided to return to the area where I saw the bighorn
sheep yesterday, but seeing bighorn sheep two days in-a-row was asking too much. We took a few shots,
but the lighting was pretty drab. After looking for The Scream on two separate occasions, we finally found it Tuesday
nearly right next to the Visitor Center. This morning, the flat, even lighting was an advantage to shooting "The Scream."
We returned to camp and changed clothes so we could return to Overton. We needed gas for the Explorer and to buy groceries. All week we've been choosing dinners that would help to clear space in the freezer so we would have room for ice cream. Today, was the day to deal with our craving for ice cream.
As soon as we returned to camp, we had to take the motorhome over to dump the tanks. We have water and electricity at the campsite, but we have to dump at a central dump station. With all the hot weather, we've been generating a lot of gray water.
By the time we returned to camp and got everything set up again, we only had about 1/2 hour before we needed to leave
to re-shoot Fire Wave
.
We wanted to be there before the lower part of the wave was in shadow and before the crowds hit.
We took the alternate route to the Fire Wave up Kaolin Wash. Although the walls aren't much more than 7 feet high, there is
a very short slot canyon just east of the road. During the first hour, we had the area to ourselves most of the time.
As sunset approached, a few more photographers arrived, but we had already staked out the best location to ensure we would
get our shots. Our practice run last week, made it much easier for us to find the right location this time. As we shot,
we compared shooting stories with the other photographers who had been shooting in Utah.
It sounds like the Zion fall color is two weeks early, so we may try to leave Valley of Fire on Sunday.
It was nice to have people who spoke English. German has definitely been the prevalent language spoken so far on this trip.
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Just as we were packing up to hike back to the Explorer, we looked up to a gorgeous band of clouds crossing the sky. Although the sun had been down for about 30 minutes, the clouds were bright pink and made an amazing background to the black volcanic bombs that peppered the colored sandstone of the ridge above the Fire Wave. The softness of the cotton candy clouds was a sharp contrast to the chiseled grooves of the sandstone and the black volcanic bombs from the last eruption from a neighboring ridge.
Tonight was movie night after dinner. About halfway through the movie, we discovered what was making the noise early this morning. Carol caught a fleeting glance of what looked like a mouse running across the floor. A few minutes later, we both saw it scurrying back across the floor to the bedroom. It was a deer mouse. Over the next 15 minutes, it made 3 more trips from the bedroom to the safety of the shoes, boxes, and camera gear in the front of the motorhome. It was very cute and seemed to enjoy checking out the happenings in the front of the motorhome.
As 11:00 approaches, I'm looking out the front window of the motorhome and watching the moon rise in the east. It's down to a 1/2 moon, but it still has the yellow color that has characterized the Harvest Moon here. The moon has been a staple of our evening entertainment.
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