Arizona

desert

Grand Canyon

panoramae

Phoenix

arrival

hotel

the Rez

dust storm

Tempe

Tucson

One afternoon, actually 1 September 1997, we finished our sight-seeing a bit earlier than expected.

Since I'd been telling Rose how much I liked Tucson, and since we had a convertable rental car, it didn't seem unusual to say "Honey, let's drive down to Tucson for dinner."

So we did. It was a beautifully clear day, again. As we started south we had the roof down, moreso to enjoy the mild weather and great views.

We were on the highway when we saw very dark clouds in the distance. We admired them, and quickly noticed that they were moving directly into our path.

Being a city boy (most of the time) I don't listen to weather forecasts, something I really ought to do when I'm out in the wilderness.

We got hit by a driving dust storm, one which covered much of the south-west portion of Arizona (as I later learned). Within minutes the visibility had fallen to feet, then inches, as the car was blasted by horizontal sheets of sand.

The cars slowed, then stopped. Luckily we all had a bit of driving experience and nobody was struck (according to the news we watched that evening). In central California there's a phenomenon called Tuly (pronounced "too-lee") fog which also reduces visibility. There ten-, twenty-, and fifty-car pile-ups aren't uncommon. We were very lucky.

Then we were through the storm, and all was clear, save the view behind us. There the storm was still blanketing the Interstate.

Then we noticed that the sun was near setting; it appears as a bright white-yellow in the photo at left.

Before we could chat much about it, the sun descended behind whatever mountain range was running parallel to the roadway, and we were plunged into darkness, with only our headlights and the eerie red orb of the sun lighting our way. It was so strange, especially after being in the whiteout of the storm, that we were captivated. (Nature seems to do that to us, especially in Arizona.) We took picture after picture, until the sun dissapeared. Then we arrived in Tucson.