Desert Rainstorms

I love thunderstorms! Especially when they keep going...the park today was surrounded by lots of individual thunderstorm cells that took turns hitting us. I am out in the entrance station, right out on the mesa top, in the middle of the action! I was treated to lots of good thunder and lightning and lots of rain--hard rain, like horizontal rain. Shortly after it stopped, I got a call from my boss letting me know the visitor center flooded (again) but they had it taken care of. She wanted to know about the condition of the entrance station...it wasn't flooded but for a while I got quite a show!

After the storm, I looked out the window...

It definitely cooled things off here! I cleaned today and it was very hot! It was a little humid too, because of the building storm so that added to the heat. Now it's calm, quiet and I am taking more pictures of the sunset!

Collard Lizard

Found this guy at Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky District. I love them! I think it's cool that the get so big and are so brightly colored. They can also run on their hind feet, which I would LOVE to see!

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Lizards,%20Miscellaneous%20IX.htm (Photo Credit)

But don't' pick them up! (They are only aggressive if threatened)

Pink Clouds

I took this out the car window yesterday coming home from a L O N G car ride to Nevada and back.

The full moon along the road and pink clouds!

 We started Wednesday and made it to Elko. I liked driving across Nevada--it looks a lot like Utah. I realized that Las Vegas (where I was born) is what I think of when I think of Nevada, when it's actually the opposite! Nevada is full of small towns and cities, and a LOT of farms!

The Great Basin is massive! Lots of mountain ranges and long, green valleys. We actually got a little lost, thinking we were on the Great Basin Highway when actually we were headed for a campground and hiking trail--Angel Lake.

Doesn't it look like Heaven? We thought so!! I didn't want to leave but we had to because we still had about 8 hours left to drive home.

The water was cold and clear and we could see fish swimming around down there.

The trip was fun and I will hopefully be able to post more on that soon. We did come home to a much hotter day than what we had there. Today at the park it's over 90 and I've been outside most of the day. Normally I don't complain about the heat but I'm really noticing it today! I have made sure to drink plenty of water! I have a full moon hike tonight and I'm looking forward to the sun going down!

An additional story about the drive home can be found here.