The morning of my hike I was surprised by pouring rain and thunder outside, though there seemed to be clearing trend by the time I started hiking in the afternoon. Even so I waited for several hours at a lower viewpoint in the trees to keep an eye on several waves of poofy thunderclouds that rumbled towards me from the northwest. I didn't want to be exposed above treeline in a thunderstorm! With only a few hours left before sunset, I could see that the last threatening cloud was passing by me to the west, so then I hustled up to my destination just in time to get settled and shoot some sunset photos.

After sunset I finally had a long time to just relax in my camp chair and watch the dusk sky get ever redder and redder to the west above La Sal Mountains.

I knew from previous scoping that I had a direct line of sight to my house far below in Ridgway, so once it got darker I called Claudia at home and she went outside to see if she could see me up in the mountains. I turned my headlamp on its brightest mode and she immediately spotted me! We both got a kick out of that. She was even able to take an iPhone snap showing my light.

I woke up early and had fun shooting the morning light just steps away from my tent, then went back to bed for a few more hours before coffee then packing up and heading back down.

The tundra grasses near treeline were plump full of tiny little wildflowers; these little white ones in particular filled the air with a lovely scent. By placing my camera directly on the grass and propping it in place with small rocks, I was able to do a close-up focus stack to accentuate the tiny flowers' size and prominence in the photo, and contrast them with the massive bulk of the peak above.