Moonrise over Owl Creek Pass

This picture was taken from a campsite at Ridgway State Park in southwest Colorado during a road/hiking/camping trip through central and southern Colorado at the end of September/beginning of October 2020. At sunset, a near full moon rose above Owl Creek Pass, a northern extension of the San Juan Mountains. 

 

Not visible in this, just below the pass, is Mattie's Meadow, where a famous scene from the 1969 movie "True Grit" was filmed. We explored the beautiful autumn scenery and the meadow en-route to the pass the next morning.

St. Francis of Assisi on an Early July Evening -- July 2019, Center Township, Butler County, NE

This picture was taken looking west towards St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Center Township in Butler County, NE in early July, 2019. I was a bit depressed after a breakup and a friend leaving town who I spent part of the weekend with, so I decided to go for a short hike, get some prayer time, and do some photography north of Lincoln in the evening to get my mind off of things. 

The simple scenery of rolling hills in this region of Nebraska, when combined with the elegant architecture such as this church, was quite uplifting.

Smoky Canyonlands -- June 2018, Canyonlands National Park, UT

For this week's second picture, this was taken late in the afternoon in the Island in the Sky region of Canyonlands National Park in eastern Utah. Smoke was advected into eastern Utah in upper levels from a wildfire somewhere to the west, creating soft "golden hour" lighting for several hours on end, which was a visual treat. This picture was taken looking to the east towards the La Sal Mountains and Arches National Park.

 I've been to Canyonlands one time since this trip (the following summer), but have not spent more than part of an afternoon here. This is a park I would love to explore the backcountry of on foot someday.

August 6, 2018 Utica, NE Mothership

Continuing the two-post theme this week, and the theme of posting thunderstorm pictures during winter weather (it's currently snowing at a good clip this evening in Lincoln), the first picture is of a supercell updraft west of Utica, NE from August 6, 2018. On this evening, an isolated supercell tracked north of I-80 in central and eastern Nebraska before dissipating north of Lincoln. My friend Matt and I made a last minute decision to chase it, and were treated to breathtaking mothership structure. When we neared the storm before exiting I-80, the tail cloud extended well to the south of the interstate for a storm whose core, if I recall correctly, was at least 10 miles north of 80. While difficult to capture in good focus or even horizontal balance (I wasn't using a tripod and I was really excited at what I was seeing), and impossible from my vantage point to capture the entirety of the structure, this should give some idea of how high into the updraft the striations went. Along with May 21, 2011 near Ada, OK, this storm provided some of the most stunning supercell structure I've ever witnessed in person. 

Scanning Anvils -- May 30, 2011 -- Ravenna, NE

For the second photo for this week, this is a picture of SMART-R 2 beginning to collect data on an encroaching squall line in central Nebraska, likely just northwest of Ravenna. I was helping with data collection during a small field campaign in May 2011 using funds leftover from VORTEX2, and this was our last deployment of the year, before SMART-R 1 was sent to the Maldives for a project there. 

Storm Deprivation Syndrome is Setting In -- June 4, 2015 Roll Cloud, Beatrice, NE

I am doing another two-part "photo of the week" blog post this week to continue to catch up from missed weeks. Given the cold weather setting in here in Lincoln, and the long winter ahead, I figured I'd post a couple storm pictures and pretend I had warm supercell inflow at my back. The first one is a long exposure shot of a roll cloud moving ahead of thunderstorms southwest of Beatrice, NE on June 4, 2015. 

Harvest at Plasi, NE -- October 2020

Corn ready to be harvested near Plasi, NE, with the few trees on the eastern Nebraska plains at peak fall color.

Bald Pated Prairie -- November 2020

This is another two-part post for this week, as I'm way behind on the "weekly" nature of this blog. 

This picture was taken near sunset at Star School Hill Prairie Conservation Area in northwest Missouri in the Loess Hills (far northern Atchison County, MO). This location was referred to by William Clark as "bald pated prairie" during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the crew spent a day exploring the area during the summer of 1804. While much of the tree foliage was gone by now, the lighting at sunset made for a beautiful prairie scene.

Harvest Snow in the Bohemian Alps -- October 2020 Post

As a second post (pun loosely intended) for today, the first snow of the 2020-21 cold season blanketed the region northwest of Lincoln, locally known as the "Bohemian Alps". The peaking fall colors, combined with overcast skies and snow on recently harvested fields made for a beautiful Great Plains autumn scene. Photo taken from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery, just north of Abie, NE, mid-October 2020.

Raggeds Wilderness -- September 2020

Since it's been several weeks since my last post, I will be doing two for this week to start to catch up for lost weeks. The first photo for this week is from the Dark Canyon/Irwin Lake/Dyke Trail loop in Gunnison National Forest along Kebler Pass. The fall foliage was spectacular along this 6 mile hike in late September 2020. 

If you do this hike, I would suggest going clockwise (starting from the horse ranch area on the north side of Gunnison CR 12), as the ~1400 foot ascent is broken into chunks, as opposed to being all at once at the beginning of the hike if done counter-clockwise. Either way, the views are incredible and well worth the workout; one of the most beautiful trails I've ever done.

Midday Aspen Glow at Kebler Pass -- September 2019

A grove of aspen trees just beginning to show off brilliant fall colors in late September 2019. Even during the middle of the day, this was an easy picture to take; just walked into the forest, pointed the camera skyward, and click! This picture was taken after hiking the Three Lakes Trail off of Gunnison County Route 12 between Paonia and Crested Butte, CO, the road which summits Kebler Pass (well known for its spectacular autumn shows). My family and I were a bit early, as fall colors in 2019 were a bit delayed, and were still spotty on September 24th in this region. As can be seen below, many trees were more of an off-green than gold. This was particularly true of the groves lining the West Elk Mountains to the north of CR 12.

Autumn Harvest in the Loess Hills -- October 2019

In mid-October 2019, I took a day for hiking and photography at Waubonsie State Park in southwest Iowa and Brickyard Hill Conservation Area in northwest Missouri, as well as surrounding parts of the I-29 corridor near the Iowa/Missouri state line. Much of the fall foliage in the Missouri River floodplain (primarily cottonwood trees) and surrounding Loess Hills lining the Missouri River was peaking at this time. 

When driving from Lincoln to Waubonsie State Park in the morning, I noticed an assortment of hay bales on a farm off of Iowa State Route 2, just to the east of I-29. Thankfully, the weather cooperated later that day, such that the golden hour lighting on the recently harvested hay field, combined with foliage in the Loess Hills, made for a pleasant pastoral scene.

 

I'll probably include photos from other parts of this day trip in future posts.

Morning Snow in Sangre de Cristo Mountains -- June 2019

Later this month, I am planning a hiking trip to southern Colorado, one of my favorite areas in the United States. On a road trip last year (which this picture is from), one of my friends referred to southern Colorado and eastern Utah as (paraphrasing) 'very interestingly arranged foliage and rocks'. This is particularly true of the Great Sand Dunes and surrounding mountains and valley floor. This picture was taken on a crisp, early summer (June 2019) morning in Great Sand Dunes National Park, looking towards the surrounding Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A dusting of snow had fallen the night before, making the early morning sun shining on this peak even more spectacular.

Schoenstatt Squall -- August 16, 2020

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 16, 2020, I bolted north to David City to meet up with a southeastward moving cluster of supercells, which were gradually congealing into a forward-propagating MCS. For the second time in three days, I was treated to beautiful landscapes and storms (see southwest moving tornadic supercell from August 14), as I got to watch somewhat discrete updrafts briefly acquire rotation and then merge, with the Platte River valley in the foreground. Once storms became a linear cluster, they accelerated south, and I had trouble getting back ahead of the ribbon-like shelf cloud. I finally got well ahead of the southwest corner of the gust front near the Schoenstatt Shrine north of Crete, NE. The Catholic chapel in the background peeking above the woods, at the end of a winding gravel road, combined beautifully with the wavy lobe and cleft pattern in the shelf cloud along the gust front. 

This chase continued to the northwest as more supercells, and eventually a second storm cluster, moved south-southeast in the northwest flow regime. The sunset with mammatus trailing the second storm west-northwest of Lincoln was brilliantly colored, and will likely be featured in another post.

Wildflowers on a Nebraska Evening -- July 2018

On July 4, 2018, I embarked on a busted storm chase in the southeastern portion of the Nebraska Sandhills. On my way home, outflow from storms to the north crossed NE-92 between Central City and St. Paul near sunset, creating beautiful lighting and sweeping over wildflowers and tallgrasses. Next to an abandoned house on a desolate stretch of Nebraska state route 92, I snapped this picture looking eastbound. Compared to other 4th of July celebrations that I've had over the past decade, this was quite serene, as most of the day was spent in forgotten corners of central Nebraska. Unfortunately, I missed the Seward fireworks display an hour and a half later, as outflow from the northern storm complex led the organizers to (smartly) move the fireworks launch up by about a half hour.

Monroe, NE Supercell -- June 2017

For this week's photo of the week, I am going back through the archive of storm chases from the past several years. This photo was taken south of Monroe, NE, of a southeast moving supercell on June 16, 2017, a northwest flow severe weather event which included an EF-2 tornado in Bellevue, NE.  This was a pretty successful chase, with a few photogenic supercells (though I missed brief tornadoes early in the event farther north, as I wasn't able to leave Lincoln as early as I would have wanted). One of my favorite views of the second supercell I saw was this one, looking north at a sculpted updraft past an aquamarine colored bridge in the foreground.

Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi, Italy -- March 2017

For this week's post, I am sharing a picture from beautiful Assisi, in the Umbria province of Italy. This was the courtyard outside of the the Basilica of St. Francis, where St. Francis of Assisi is buried, near sunset in March 2017.

The old part of Assisi, built into a hillside, is a beautiful town, filled with numerous Catholic churches, outdoor cafes, and houses and gardens and piazzas. I was there for three days as part of a Catholic pilgrimage to Italy. Sts. Francis and Clare, ora pro nobis!

Mayflower Gulch, CO in Autumn -- September 2018

This is the first post in what I intend to make a semi-weekly blog of photography. I am not a professional photographer, and do not own any fancy photography equipment at the moment (just a point and shoot camera for now :) . That said, I really enjoy photography and cannot wait to keep learning more, and perhaps try out nicer equipment at some point. Shameless plug: I am an atmospheric scientist and have a couple other blogs I am working on, one with storm chasing logs (stlsoonerwx.blogspot.com) and occasional weather, climate, and drought updates for Nebraska (https://newxticker.blogspot.com/).

For this week, this is a picture of an old cabin located in Mayflower Gulch, CO, between Leadville and I-70, from September 2018. Given the drought during that year and the preceding winter, fall color was making an early appearance in the high country of Colorado. A beautiful morning for a hike, during a quick weekend trip from Lincoln, NE, resulted in plenty of excellent photo opportunities as my friends and I ascended through the gulch. Old cabins were strewn about the old ghost mining town of Boston, situated below Atlantic and Fletcher Peaks, and could be explored by hikers. While the largest golden, orange, and red aspen groves were to our north across CO Highway 91, the golden-hued shrubberies made for a beautiful scene.

I've only hiked this trail during the fall, but have read that it is a beautiful hike at other times of year as well, though you may need to be prepared with snow shoes or other similar gear. As with any high country hiking, check the weather forecast before you go, and make sure you're back before any thunderstorms, a particular danger during the North American Monsoon.