My wife and I are just back from a week of camping in the Four Corners. We got a late start last Wednesday, so we camped that night at Chaco Canyon National Monument in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. The next morning it rained for several hours. It rained during the day too. Even when not raining, the weather was overcast and poor for landscape photography. The next day there were intermittent rains.
So on Friday we headed to Hovenweep National Monument in southeastern Utah. The next morning it rained for several hours. This is very unusual, even during the summer monsoon season. Next we headed for lower elevation -- a campground along the San Juan River near Bluff, Utah. This gave my wife the opportunity to spend the equivalent of a new lens on a piece of Navajo jewelry at a trading post. (Actually I was happy to buy it for her. She had seen a nice piece in this store four years ago and not bought it then. She never forgot the piece, though, and there it was, still awaiting her. That's one of the great things about trading posts in places out of the way.) On Sunday we headed north to Moab. Monday afternoon we stood at Dead Horse Point overlooking Canyonlands and the Colorado River, and watched a storm to the east deluge Moab. Moab got two inches in an hour, and several main roads (including the main highways) had to be closed. Then, stupid us, standing out on Dead Horse Point, my wife and I both managed nearly to get struck by lightning. (The nearest threatening-looking clouds were several miles away, but lightning can get you from that distance.) Dead Horse Point has an observation deck, below which are the rocks of the mesa. Bonnie was on the observation deck and I was a few feet below her on the rocks. Suddenly I felt/heard a crackling in my hat. At the same time she heard static in her ears. It took a split second for both of us to get past saying silently to ourselves "Wow, that's weird," recognize what it was, simultaneously yell to each other, and drop to the ground. Apparently it was a horizontal bolt that never connected with the ground -- cloud to cloud. Whew. I've been close to lightning strikes before (30-40 yards), but this was too much. We gave up on Dead Horse Point for that day. Bonnie's ears hurt for several hours. On Tuesday we took a boat down the river into Canyonlands. There was only a little rain. On Wednesday we came home -- and not a drop all day. Because of the weather the photo opportunities weren't what I had hoped for. But I did exercise the DA 14, DA 10-17, and D FA 50, all of which had been getting flabby. My time permitting, look for some posts. It's good to be back with the list again. Joe -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
