Corona around the Moon

This is a photo of the moon shortly after it rose over the mountains to the east. There is a scattering of high clouds that were moving rapidly from the right to the left in the photo. The colors in the corona were quite distinct. You can also see some faint moondogs, light effects at right angles. These appear as faint purplish spots at the 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 positions around the moon. There is also a faint double corona effect.

Self Portrait in Reflection

I was walking by the Harmon Building on the Brigham Young University campus and decided to take a self portrait. I guess I am indicating that the world is very big and I am a very small part of it. It also shows how present the mountains are in this world of the Utah Valley. We had an interesting conversation about the mountains. One of my daughters said she could never figure out why it was called Utah Valley because she could not see the mountains on the west side. Well, there are mountains to the west, but they are not nearly as imposing as the Wasatch Front to the east. Provo is in a valley, in fact, the entire area is called the Great Basin because there is no river drainage outside of the valleys. All of the water flows ultimately into the Great Salt Lake.

Frost

The last few days have been both very cold and very warm. We have had highs close to the 60s and lows in the 20s. This one morning the temperature dropped into the mid-20s and the ground was frozen and I noticed that frost had decorated the Vinca outside my window. I took a quick photo or two, but this was the only one that came out showing the frost. I am going to watch more closely in the future, perhaps we will see some more of the work of this fierce artificer.

Timp Sunset

I am usually up in the morning when it is still pitch dark so I do get to see a lot of sunrises. Unfortunately, I am usually busy in the evenings and miss most of the sunsets. This was one of the exceptions. We were driving back home and I could see the last of the sun on the high mountains to the east. But I got home in time to pull out the camera and take a shot of the mountain from my front yard. The color faded within two or three minutes of this photo.

Hay Rake

This is a horse drawn hay rake. I often see old, abandoned farm equipment such as this permanently parked on the side of the road. There are dozens of different models of this type of equipment and determining the identity of the manufacturer without access to the equipment is difficult. This particular hay rake is sometimes referred to as a horse drawn bull or  rake.

The Needles

This is the visible edge of the Needles Section of Canyonlands National Park. If you want to explore this area further, you will have to walk or go by 4-wheel drive vehicle. The needles are formed by differential weathering caused by erosion due to mechanical abrasion and freezing water in cracks. These sandstone formations are constantly changing, but at a rate that is so slow, that most changes are not visible during a lifetime. It is not unusual to see rocks fall or break away, especially if you spend a lot of time in the sandstone.

Canyonlands: The Needles Section

The Needles Section of Canyonlands National Park, Utah is all but inaccessible except for 4-wheel drive, high clearance vehicles. Canyonlands National Park is divided into three distinct areas by the Colorado and Green Rivers. I am most familiar with the section called the Island in the Sky which is adjacent to Dead Horse Point State Park, The other section called, the Maze, is even more remote. I have driven a thousands of miles on the back roads of Arizona and Utah. There are few places I could not get to in Arizona with my 2-wheel drive truck, but there are lots of places in Utah that really do require 4-wheel drive vehicles.