2022
A belated Earth Day photographic journey of sunset walk in late January in Arizona…
The sky starts out gray and bleak, as if it might rain but no drops are falling- like a sneeze that doesn’t want to come out.
I had been hopeful to see a stunning sunset, but it didn’t seem like it would happen. Ahead of me lay a flat bleakness that started to fill with a faded orange- tarnished with the gray from earlier. I thought that would be the best view I would get, so I turned back.
Luck would have it that it would still be another 45 minutes till I reached the trailhead. As I trudged on, the gray tarnishes were fading, and soon oranges and pinks began to take over- combining into a soft pink. At pink o’clock, a couple strolls by, their feisty dog in tow. A lone cyclist for some odd reason starts to pedal further into the mountainous park- unafraid of the impending nightfall.
What is a sunset without the sun? The sun, as if on cue, peeks through the sheer patch of clouds, making a last dramatic entrance for the day. At orange o’clock, a man stands on the side of the trail gazing at the sky. A group of women laugh loudly at a shared joke, their laughter trailing as they jog off into the distance.
I stop to take in the sights. I can see the light black hues bubbling under the orange. Dusk is coming. As the orange and looming darkness mix, the sky becomes dark red. The sun, reluctant to leave, sticks by the horizon, continuing to cast a stripe of orange.
I am a minute away from the parking lot now, so I linger waiting a bit longer. The light black hues become bolder, turning into a dark black that mixes with the red. The sky looks now like the petals of an indigo flower. At purple o’clock, the air becomes cooler. The park has become quiet. Only 2 cars remain in the lot: one of them mine and the latter perhaps owned by that daring cyclist still pedaling away.
As I drive home, I see the purples becoming darker, melding with the blacks until the sky is blanketed in pure black. Nightfall has come.
