Sky Friday - A Colorado Sunset

Whew - today is the first day I've had access to my computer since our move (our stuff arrived yesterday, and we spent yesterday and today unloading it...glad that is over), and I was finally able to download the 1300+ photos I took since we left.  And, happily, can resume posting here.

Our drive across the east and midwest was an epic journey; I am hoping to do a post of it that will be quite long, with photos, in the next few days.  Most were shot through the passenger window of the Civic as we traversed the country along I-80, and many of them were - you guessed it - clouds!   So many amazing clouds during the drive, and it just got better after we got to CO.   For our arrival into Durango, we were greeted with one of the glorious monsoon storms that both Wayne and I have missed so much.

Since being here almost a week, we've gone out on drives and/or hikes almost every day, which has afforded me a rich assortment of photos of more monsoon skies, both in the mountains and along the plateau country south and west of Durango.  

Since it's been a while for any sunset photos, this Sky Friday resumes with some photos we took on a drive out on Monday, July 26.  The skies looked promising for a great sunset, so we headed south and east of town to get a more open view.

We drove down a dirt road that was surrounded by farmland, with mountains of the Rockies in the distance, and pulled off for some photos.  The mosquitos were a bit out of hand, due to the nearby irrigation ditch, so we didn't stay too long.

Here is the first of many Sky Friday posts of the beautiful skies of southwestern CO.  Enjoy, and thank you for your patience with the long delay in posts.

To the east

The face of the mountains captures the glow of the setting sun, while the cumulonimbus

To the north

Beautiful shades of purple- and blue-grays begin to infuse these stratocumulus clouds 

To the west

The sun silhouettes the stratocumulus clouds, while the San Juan Mtns. taper away to plateau country to the right

Back to the east

Cattle graze on the lush pastureland while the cumulonimbus continues to change in both shape and color

Farm with sunset

A building silhouette is dwarfed by the adjacent trees and colorful clouds in this view to the northwest.  The San Juans are visible in the left

To the south

A look down the dirt road leads to classic Colorado Plateau country, and the pink-purple clouds are remnants of earlier monsoon storms that are now fading away along with the light.