A preview of the monsoon

The North American Monsoon (NAM) is slowly developing across northern Mexico but has not yet spread northward into Arizona. Nonetheless, some tropical moisture moved northward across the state and produced some showers and thunderstorms. In fact, one thunderstorm produced almost 1/2 inch of rain on the southwest side of Flagstaff (including my house!) and the temperature dropped more than 25°F resulting in pleasant conditions.

These storms produced a cool outflow boundary that pushed southward off the Mogollon Rim and into the lower elevations. These outflows can result in new thunderstorms forming over Sedona—one of my favorite places for photographing storms and lightning. And so I headed to Sedona.

The outflow boundary was apparent as a line of shallow cumulus clouds roughly aligned east to west across the area. I selected a spot on Upper Red Rock Crossing Road to shoot towards Cathedral Rock and then waited for lightning.

Evening sunlight spreads across Cathedral Rock.
Evening sunlight spreads across Cathedral Rock.

It was a long wait.

From first test photo to first lighting was a little over an hour. I’m patient but I almost gave up.Then, suddenly, a flash across the sky. Missed it—because I was zoomed in too tight. A moment later—another flash and this one I got. And that was it. No more flashes.

Lightning strikes behind Pyramid Peak.
Lightning strikes behind Pyramid Peak.

Time to move to another location and shoot twilight colors. I often find myself at the defunct Sedona Cultural Park because it has wide open vistas to the west (at least for now). I arrived as the sun was setting and everyone else was leaving. But the so-called “Blue Hour” can be the best time. If you take long exposures, you can get some really nice colors. I particularly liked this cloud because of the thin streamers of precipitation falling with twilight colors in the background.

Thin streamers of precipitation fall as the twilight fades.
Thin streamers of precipitation fall as the twilight fades.

A day later and the moisture has moved out of the area resulting in more typical hot, dry days with clear blue skies. Boring.

Moonset over Lake Mary

During the summer months the waxing crescent Moon sets in the west-northwest and lines up with Upper Lake Mary casting a long reflective glow on the water. With this in mind, I set out to capture images of the Moon just two days past new Moon and with only about 6% of the disk directly illuminated. During this lunar phase the dark portion of the Moon is faintly lit by reflected light called Earthshine.

First came the sunset...
First came the sunset…

I arrived early and watched the fading colors of sunset then began my wait for the skies to darken. The first image shows the crescent Moon fairly high in the sky with patches of clouds between it and the horizon.

Moon above Lake Mary.
Moon above Lake Mary.
Moon with reflection on Lake Mary.
Moon with reflection on Lake Mary.

About 45 minutes after the first image I was able to get this photograph as the Moon was approaching the horizon and leaving a long reflective trail across the lake.

Clear, Blue Skies and Deep Powder

We had a nice snow storm earlier this week that brought a bit less than a foot of new snow to Flagstaff—but more than two feet in the mountains. Time to get out and ski some deep powder!

Snow covered trees in the Kachina Peaks.
Snow covered trees in the Kachina Peaks.

So off we went to ski the backcountry. Our destination was the area known as “Allison Clay” on the west face of Humphreys Peak. Getting there is not straightforward as there is no trail. One has to bushwack their way from the lower sections of the Humphreys Peak trail around a portion of the mountain before reaching the open slopes. Nonetheless, the trek can be quite beautiful when there is a lot of fresh snow on the trees.

While bushwhacking through the forest we spotted this yin-yang symbol on a tree.
While bushwhacking through the forest we spotted this yin-yang symbol on a tree.

Along the way we stopped at “Flying Dutchman” to survey the conditions. The old snow had settled so much in the past few weeks that the new snow was insufficient to completely cover the rocks and many were poking through the powder. After a quick stop, it was time to continue to our main destination.

First, we must climb this...
First, we must climb this…

Normally setting a trail through the forest and finding Allison Clay is not that difficult—but on this outing I aimed too low and we ended up below the normal ski zone. Not a problem! As it turned out, we found another nice gully with deep, untracked powder. Up we climbed—determined that we would return through this gully on our way back. Higher up, we broke out into the open and began the moderately steep climb up the west face of the mountain. Then it was time to convert all that potential energy into kinetic energy—in other words, let gravity do its thing.

...so that we can do this!
…so that we can do this!
Tree skiing in a wide gully.
Tree skiing in a wide gully.

And, oh, it was GOOD—especially the powder-filled gully! By this time, however, we were getting tired since we had to break a lot of trail through deep snow just to get here.

Look at that happy smile!
Look at that happy smile!

Next morning—same thing. We did all the work yesterday breaking trail so today would be easier. Unfortunately, winds had increased overnight and the avalanche danger began to increase so we chose to ski through the trees and away from the open slope. That turned out to be even better because the powder in the trees was simply marvelous.

Clear, blue skies and deep powder. Wow!

Edit: 01/25/2017…fixed broken link.

Big snow on the peaks

Clouds swirl around the snow covered Kendrick Peak.
Clouds swirl around the snow covered Kendrick Peak.
Sunset colors illuminate the Kachina Peaks.
Sunset colors illuminate the Kachina Peaks.

After five days of snow the skies finally cleared showing several feet of new snow on the peaks of northern Arizona. Late afternoon shadows race across the meadows of Brannigan Park while sunlight continues to illuminate the high peaks.

Upper Lake Mary on a cold winter’s day

 

Cold temperatures and a lack of snow brings a sheet of polished and fissured ice to the lake
Cold temperatures and a lack of snow brings a sheet of polished and fissuredice to the lake

With a series of Pacific storms forecast to move across the area this week, this scene will soon be buried under several feet of snow.