Chiricahua View

Left: View from the Heart of Rocks Trail, Chiricahua National Monument, southeastern Arizona. Those look like the Dos Cabezas Mountains in the distance, with the infinity of the Willcox Playa off to the left.



Dyer really just outdoes himself with this awesome photo!

I remember traveling to this place in October 1987, with Karl Tsuji. Karl had decided to leave geology graduate school and try his hand as a commodities trader. Only trouble? His first day of work coincided with the 1987 stock market crash....

So, with Karl completely idled, and with little else to do, we headed to recuperate from the Wall Street blues in the Chiricahua Mountains. It was windy, and somewhat cold. Cirrus uncinus cloud streets hung for miles from the upper troposphere, the ice crystals slowly descending in long, long, long hooks. The ice crystals fell so far, I swear, I felt little water droplets occasionally strike my cheeks. Meteorologists scoff when I tell them this story, but it's true: these wispy, icy clouds can reach the surface!

Different clouds in this photo, but given the endless perspective of the Arizona sky, this picture manages to capture the atmosphere perfectly!