there’s a location at the southern tip of the original designation of bears ears national monument, called muley point. there are two viewpoints a few miles off of the main road - immediately before the main road begins one of the more hair-on-the-neck-raising drives down a washboard, gravel road of switchbacks with no safety railing, which falls a really, really long way.

from muley point, you can see for what appears to be thousands of miles. in truth, you can see at least twenty as monument valley, off in the distance is just over twenty miles from this location.

and so it was, as I was looking off towards monument valley, that a storm was rolling in from the west as the sun set. i remained in this location for over an hour watching the weather blow in, the clearings in the clouds produce the most beautiful sun rays, and marveling at the textures in the goosenecks created by the san juan river below.

and then, it started snowing.