Sunset

I have seen a million sunsets. Never have I seen any sunset as beautiful as the one I saw one evening over Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.

I drove out to Antelope Island with my friend, “Adam”. We were hoping to beat the dying light and catch a few great shots on film. It’s not looking too promising as the sky darkens prematurely with some furious clouds. The clouds burst open with lashing winds and slanted rain. The road quickly filled with a couple inches of water. It’s looking nasty, really nasty now.

“Be careful driving in this mess,” A. cautions me.

Puh-leez! Try driving in Georgia through the leftovers of a hurricane blowing inland. Now, that’s a storm! “I’m an expert at this,” I reassure him.

We begin down the 7 mile causeway leading to the island. As suddenly, as the sky erupted, it settled down. The storm was now behind us and the clouds were now parting. Tinges of red and orange were bursting through. I stopped the car.

Standing along the road outside of my car, we watched in amazement the bold colors bleeding through the clouds and the lake as it reflecting them in a mirror image. Behind us, in the storm, lightening bolts were zapping across the sky. My skin tingled with the electric pulse of the fading storm. We snapped our photos and watched the sunset until it was no more and we were standing in darkness.

Then we were kicked off the island because the park was closing its gates. Hahaha.

I wrote this in dedication of the beautiful moment:

Sunset

Etched in memory, I cannot forget
The amazing evening of a golden sunset
The raging storm as it blew in
Bringing torrential rain and the high winds
Lightening was striking in the distance
And the earth stood still in defiant resistance
As the wind in its fury rearranged the sky
Pushing around the clouds as it passed by
Shifting and moving until it finally revealed
The vibrant beauty the clouds had concealed
The sun painted the sky in a fiery blaze
I could not look away; it held my gaze
The melting sky mirrored in the great lake
An inspiring impression it did make
I could not see if the painted sky had an end
And if it did, where did the colored water begin?
This unison created such a spectacular scene
What was once so intense was now so serene
I tried to describe the awe but I failed
To express the most gorgeous sunset I beheld