Hovenweep Spring Storm                   click to enlarge

Spring is when we get some of the most dramatic weather of the year. All that meteorological stuff starts working with highs and lows and pressure cells and barometric irresponsibility, and things like low pressure instability coupled with really scary-bad advisories from people like NOAA and other folks who sole aim is to scare the bejesus out of you when all you’re trying to do is have a nice day.

Add being in place so far removed from what we’ve come to think of as normal, like you know, McDonald’s, Wally’s World, the mall and you get what we call in the photo business “High Drama”.  There is barely a road to this place and if hadn’t been for four-wheel drive you wouldn’t have gotten here at all. Passing burnt out hulks of automobiles with the desiccated remains of their occupants lying nearby has an off-putting effect, and begins to make it seem reasonable that your companion begins rubbing ashes on her face and chanting her death song and she’s not even Native American and you’ve got the makings of an interesting day.

There is a very physical presence to these storms. As the front moves in everything goes quiet. The insects cease making their small sounds, birds stop flying and immediately begin seeking shelter under the nearest rock, you can feel the pressure change on your skin, sometimes your eardrums feel like you’re cresting a mountain pass and then pop suddenly adding to the thoughts of your impending demise. It’s a total rush actually.

This image is of a storm that blew up in moments while we were visiting a really cool place called Hovenweep National Monument. It’s located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Romantic but desolate. Bring your own lunch and plenty of water, there isn’t even a vending machine out here and be prepared to experience nature in its rawest form. It is hard to imagine that folks made their living out here at one time. It is a forbidding place filled with hardships and one doesn’t have to ponder too long on why they would suddenly decide to split and seek a gentler more productive place to live.

However if drama is your thing and I guess by now you know it is mine, this is a place you want to visit. If you crave new experiences, or at least different ones than the gym and your favorite watering hole you’ll find it here. The range of phenomenon runs the gamut of blistering sun, wind-driven sand caressing your face, and the occasional intensely torrential rainstorms then silence so loud it makes your ears hurt. And that’s when things are calm. However underneath all the drama there is the undeniable, unrelenting beauty of a far away place that isn’t home. There aren’t that many places left where you can experience the exotic but you can here, especially if you’re lucky enough to be there in the middle of one of their spring storms. What more could you ask for?