On a recent trip between northern Arizona and Colorado I had the chance to photograph several interesting clouds and a rainbow.

Early in the trip we visited Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. Our timing was good to catch late afternoon light and the setting sun over the beautiful red rock of the park. Fortunately, a few showers were well positioned to catch the light and create an amazing scene. Over a period of about one-half hour the light went from flat to beautiful to shadow–then back to amazing. And then the Sun set and it was over.

On the return trip we saw a very nice wave cloud (altocumulus standing lenticularis or ACSL) over the mountain of southern Colorado. It remained in place long enough for us to get to the San Luis Valley and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in south-central Colorado. The juxtaposition of the mountain range and wave cloud made a nice composition. After a few minutes at this location, we continue on our journey and then stopped again to look back at the wave cloud now located to our northeast.

Spray from Treasure falls produces a rainbow.

Finally, as we descended the west side of Wolf Creek Pass we stopped at Treasure Falls. After a short hike we arrived at the falls. The Sun was now low enough in the west to create a rainbow in the spray from the falls. Pretty nice!