My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
It started falling yesterday morning around 7:00 am and continued to snow all day long. Sometimes heavy but mostly just a light wet snowfall. I think these spring snows are pretty but I do not want the cold that always seems to come with it. Sun is shinning and expected to reach 45 degrees then back into the 60’s and 70’s tomorrow. Have a good week!
Well, I arrived in to Phoenix yesterday evening about 6:30 pm, an hour later than I expected. Even though I left Cortez early I found myself stopping way too often. When I awoke I could hear the wet pavement from passing cars. But I was in for a surprise when I stepped outside my hotel room and found 2-3 inches of snow on my car. Glad I did not pitch the tent. 
Below is an image taken just west of Cortez before sunrise. What a beautiful serene morning.
I arrived in Canyon De Chilly about 9:00 in the morning and spent more time there than I expected, which was not enough time. The scenery was breath taking but not as much as the sacredness I felt there. There were very few visitors because of the cold and snow from the night before and it is still early in the season. Loved the quiet of walking to vistas and looking out over the canyon. I had no desire to leave and will go back.
I took the above image along Highway 191 in northeast Arizona. You can see the storm system that moved through yesterday on the eastern horizon. You can also see the dirt on my lens.
If you enjoy scattered clouds against a blue sky then yesterday was the day for it.
I also made a quick drive through the Petrified Forest National Park. It was more than I expected, the colors and art work of nature at it’s best can be found in Painted Desert area of the park. It is called the ‘badlands’ for a good reason but what beauty in such a desolate and harsh land. Now to relax and spend time with my parents and eat!
Well, I chose plan B and got a hotel in Cortez, Colorado. About mid morning the clouds rolled in and by the time I got to Pagosa Springs it was a mix of rain and snow. So far I’ve driven through rain, sleet, hail and snow. Plan A was to camp and plan B was a hotel, thus the decision for plan B. Snow plows were out on Wolf Creek Pass while only light snow and rain on Konosha Pass, Red Hill Pass and Trout Creek Pass. Been and up and down day! It has been a beautiful and scenic drive. I’m expecting the same tomorrow as I head to Phoenix.
I found this small one room house in the South Park area. Sure has a big yard!
“Nature constantly teaches us that a larger picture exists than what we see. It compels us to awaken by confronting us with order, design, and perfection everywhere.”
Wayne Teasdale
I ignore my cold feet and hands as I stand and watch the snowfall. Indiscernible to my eyes, I watch as nature creates a perfect snowflake and then another and then another. Before long it has created millions of snowflakes offering a breathtakingly beautiful wintery scene. A mysterious quiet and stillness surrounds me. Yet, through that quiet, nature teaches and speaks to me of something beyond myself, transcending my understanding. Something inside of me is being awakened, nourished. And, so I listen and watch.
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”
Gerry Spence
I do think getting out in the cold has a way of opening the mind and eyes. Taken at the Arapahoe Bend Nature Area about midmorning.
Minus 7 degrees this morning at 5:30. By 8:00 we were up to -3 and bright sunshine. Predicted high of 28 degrees caused me to smile. Heat wave is here today. If you notice those are the Canada Geese in the background, sleeping in late.
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit” -Edward Abbey