Of sand and wind and snow....

So, I was in Utah this past weekend with the idea of ending up in Monument Valley Sunday night for the bi-annual mitten shadow thing and just my luck -- wind of ehat seemed like 30-50 mph and a sandstorm that threatened to sandblast me into oblivion. Needless to say, I made a hasty retreat, but not without a few shots. I bailed back to CO only to be stopped at Vail Pass -- I-70 was shut down. All in all it was a good trip, I left Thursday, drove about 1400 miles and went to, 2 National Parks, 2 state parks, 1 tribal park and several other place of interest....

Here's what the weather was like early the same morning.....

Paul ~ That sand storm look insane!! I like the perspective of #2. Most shots from show the 'U' section.

Wow, my typing is horrible. The last line should read "Most shots only show the 'U' section".

Sorry to hear you got shut out at MV, but am glad you got to visit other places.
With a little postprocessing, that Goosenecks image would really sing!
I just read about that I-70 shutdown....how did you get home?

Yeow! How are your lenses and camera? Sand can be brutal!
John

Thanks guys, the sand was nuts, and I think it drove most of the sane people from the area. As soon as I got back in my truck I worked on brushing off all the sand. The UV filter was coated, but luckily the 17-40 is pretty well sealed. I'm sure the senor is going to need a little cleaning though.
Bert, I have some of just the "U" shot at about 24mm. The wider shots I took were from about 17-20mm.
John M., thanks -- these were pretty much straight jpegs from my RAW files. I can tell with a little more work the Goosenecks shot could be good, my PP work isn't up to most of the others on the board, to the point where I still use GND filters instead of blending exposures.
I heard about the big pileup tonight, luckily I left Vail at 10 am and the roads were actually pretty decent, I slowed a couple times down to 40 mph for slush, but all in all not bad compared to the conditions the night before.

That sandstorm shot is pretty wild! good stuff.

The sandstorm photo is cool! Probably pretty unique conditions.

Thanks Stan and Jack. Jack the conditions were indeed unique, which is the only thing that convinced me to stick it out for awhile -- I just haven't seen too many shots that are similar.

First shot OH YEAH!