After departing Arches and Canyonlands, I made for Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. Along the way I stumbled across Colorado National Monument. I’m afraid I’ve gotten in the bad habit of thinking National Monuments as buildings…you know, like the National Monument in DC. Colorado National Monument is an amazing landscape of canyons and chasms.
For most of the afternoon and evening, thunderstorms rolled through the area. At one point, just around sunset, the clouds broke enough for the sun to shine through so I darted off to try and find a rainbow. I spotted one, but didn’t have a good vantage point so ran down a trail, hoping it would lead me to a good view. It did, but by the time I got there, the next thunderstorm had blocked out the sun again. I suddenly had these amazing views opposite the sun where the clouds were like The Nothing out of The Neverending Story…
I spent a few moments capturing the scene before thunder shook the ground and I remembered the whole “Try Not To Get Struck By Lightening” Rule. I jogged back up the trail and made it back to cover just after the rain started.
That was the last break in the rain for the night, so the rest of the night was spent reading “Return Of The King”.
In the morning I spent a while longer exploring the area, slowly making my way towards Gunnison. I’d hoped to spend the next day or so camping in Black Canyon, but two things ganged up on me. One, it would NOT stop raining. Two, the cold I’d been holding at bay with mass doses of vitamin C, decided it was going to kick in and start an attack on my chest.
My only sensible course at that time was to book a cheap motel room and try to cut this cold off at the knees. Where I’ve been since. The cough is gone and the rest seems to be releasing its grip on my head, so I hope to be heading up to the Denver/Boulder/Rocky Mountain National Park area within the next day or so to meet up with some photographer friends of mine for a few days of communal shooting. 🙂