When I was little, far away from mountains I never had seen, a song called Fire on the Mountain, by the Marshall Tucker Band, conjured up a mental image of a deeply textured and stunning high-country sunset sky remarkably similar to this. That thought, often imagined back then but later filed away forgotten until I finally experienced this moment, also immediately reminded of the song, which I hadn’t heard in years. I had been at Cascade Falls Park for other photographic purposes that didn’t work out well, due to low water-flow volume, when the cliffs to my east started turning a faint reflected golden-orange. A higher authority, who knows perfectly and had a better idea, compelled me to look westward instead, at an altogether different object of appreciation and photography! Even as many sunsets as I’ve seen and shot, never yet had I witnessed one whose low clouds so vividly and potently erupted in yellow and orange as these. Clean high-altitude skies and residual moisture from a dead Pacific hurricane helped. All I had to do was clamber around and up some rocks to get a clean shot at it.
Ouray CO (3 Oct 18) Looking WSW
38.0257, -107.6642Fiery Mountain Sky
When I was little, far away from mountains I never had seen, a song called Fire on the Mountain, by the Marshall Tucker Band, conjured up a mental image of a deeply textured and stunning high-country sunset sky remarkably similar to this. That thought, often imagined back then but later filed away forgotten until I finally experienced this moment, also immediately reminded of the song, which I hadn’t heard in years. I had been at Cascade Falls Park for other photographic purposes that didn’t work out well, due to low water-flow volume, when the cliffs to my east started turning a faint reflected golden-orange. A higher authority, who knows perfectly and had a better idea, compelled me to look westward instead, at an altogether different object of appreciation and photography! Even as many sunsets as I’ve seen and shot, never yet had I witnessed one whose low clouds so vividly and potently erupted in yellow and orange as these. Clean high-altitude skies and residual moisture from a dead Pacific hurricane helped. All I had to do was clamber around and up some rocks to get a clean shot at it.
Ouray CO (3 Oct 18) Looking WSW
38.0257, -107.6642