Tonight after work I met my sister, her husband, and her eldest son for a walk in the Sandia foothills at dusk. I had my camera with me, but a long stretch of clouds to the west made the prospects of remarkable light at sun down seem pretty slim. Except, there was a thin slit of a gap between the cloud bank and the horizon suggested maybe, just maybe, a bit of a show late.

We walked up a trail that gave us a little elevation on a hillside, and in time, the sky cooperated and golden light began to touch the earth to the distant west. We stood and watched the show on that hill trail, and then my brother-in-law Frank said, “Say, those are turbines from a wind farm over there.” We looked where he pointed, beneath and to the right of Mt. Taylor, and in a band of light, white stubble stood on a mesa top.

We were looking at wind turbines from the Red Mesa Wind Power Plant out by Seboyeta, NM. Out by Laguna Pueblo, basically.

Of the many times I have watched the sun fall and I have stared out towards Mt. Taylor standing in the fading light, I had never seen this.

I guess that is what a little elevation does for you.