Last Saturday we were bombarded by the
Santa Ana winds, the scourge of our desert existence. Everything outside that isn't put away, blows away. Wind blown sand finds every nook and orifice, and driving anywhere, even in the jeep, a dangerous undertaking with palm trees in town bending at the knees, their limbs and fronds serious projectiles. So...we hunkered down with hatches battened!
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| First, the wind...we can see it coming! |
Then right on cue, a few days later, the storms from up north arrived to clear the air and settle the dust. We watched as the clouds formed over the mountains and a light rain fell, hardly enough to matter in this drought, but the lights and shadows put on a show and I went chasing rainbows.
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| Then the rain |
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| Searching for that pot of gold |
So now we're back to our beautiful mild, sunny, clear mid-70 days...at least for awhile. Time to go look for
The Slot canyon off Highway 78 and do some hiking. We found it OK with good directions on the State Park map, however from the top of the canyon we could NOT find a way down...no, actually getting down looked easy enough, but climbing back out again not so much.
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| We might be down and can't get up! |
The sandstone walls are crumbly and eroding and...well, we chickened out and decided we'd do a jeep drive around the
Badlands.
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| Badlands |
But we're on top of the canyon and need to go down a really steep, deep-sandy hill with huge ruts and holes. Howard got out, looked, and said "no problem", then we get to the point of
no return and he says "Oh S***"! I am strapped in and wedged with feet pushing against dash (hard to imagine) and eyes tightly shut and clutching the camera and all objects within reach that can become air borne once we start to slide and roll! We slid and fishtailed and after the worst was over I peaked out for a quick shot.
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| Piece of cake...Not! |
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| Think I'll look now! |
After that minor heart palpitation and adrenaline rush, we were just out for a drive...
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| I think I'll just watch and snap a photo...from outside |
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| Needing a break.. |
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| THE END!! |
1 comment:
I like everything about that desert, except the wind blown dust. Nice capture of the rainbow.
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