Recent years have had us living with a healthy bit of unease during the summer months as Colorado has joined the ranks of being a fire-prone state amid a multi-year drought throughout the greater west. I say healthy, as with a litany of our own local fires as well as living so relatively near the massive record-setting fires of 2020, the unease creates a sense of hyper-vigilance that keeps us all on our toes in terms of keeping an eye out on our local forests and the activities therein, whether they be human or natural.
That said, this year has proven to be blessed with quite the opposite in the greater Roosevelt National Forest, as we have been granted an enjoyably wet summer, a reminder of the days of yore that brought clock-work timed summer showers nearly every day. With these daily deluges comes another treasure of the season that drought robs us of, the rainbow. I can’t say as I recall another year with such an abundance of these beautiful ribbons in the sky. While I would imagine that social media and the massive proliferation of photos heightens that sense, I truly can’t remember a year with so many.
The summer months tend to bring storms in the mid to late afternoon, with the sun in an ideal position in the sky to provide just the right angle that produces these beauties with a good bit of regularity and consistency. These treasures can be very fleeting, especially when there are multiple bands of storms moving through that can obscure the sun soon after the last storm has passed, which is a good reason to always have a camera at the ready at all times (a good thing everyone now has a phone attached to their camera too, in case you need to call and tell someone you’ve captured that beauty!). The mountain treasure shown here was one such bit of serendipity captured at our very own bridge in Rollinsville while driving home from an afternoon scouting trip for an upcoming photoshoot. As one storm passed to the east there was a brief window of perfect brilliance just before the next wave of dark clouds made its way over the western divide, rapidly obscuring the necessary sunshine.
I’ll leave this week with bit of a tip for those new to the area! As we transition into the fall our weather tends to transition a bit as well, with clouds and precipitation over the mountains often beginning to consolidate in the early mornings. This shift also ideally coincides with the rising sun, which, if you train your morning eyes westward, may bless you with one (or two or three if you’re quite lucky) of these transitory gems to start your beautiful day in our little slice of paradise in the Rocky Mountains!
Originally published in The Mountain-Ear
