Driving to the Creek on a recent climbing trip, I passed wondrous  golden cottonwoods.

The trees gleamed in the sun, more beautiful than I’d ever seen them before.

Golden trees reflected in the reservoir, below orange cliffs.

On this trip, I spent almost as much time chasing pictures as I did trying to climb!

View from Bridger Jack camping toward cliffs

I drove through thunder, lightning, and pounding rain to reach Indian Creek. Luckily, the rain  stopped shortly before Moab, and all I had to contend with when arriving at Indian Creek was to put up my tent at night int he mud.

Now mud is easy to avoid in the day - you stay on the slick rock. However, at night, when you can’t see, it’s harder. I floundered from slick rock, to mud, to puddles.

The next morning dawned bright blue and sunny, as mornings tend to, in the desert near Moab. Scattered puddles were all to remind us of yesterday’s big storm.