Jumbo Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park

It's not the sun itself that makes a sunset for me. There is no doubt that it plays a prime role, but there is more to it.

Say, here in Joshua Tree NP, the sunset creates vistas over this boulder landscape that are fascinating to the point where each rock, each curve, each pit, takes on a personality. The large, tapered boulder to my front sheds a complacent tan glow, giving its reflection to me from an oblique angle. And the rock outcropping to the right catches flame as the shadow of the mountain to the west plods on to quench it. The sky, too, wil do the same, casting off its cool blue to be replaced with peach, then rose, and lavendar, fading back to indigo before giving way to the deep blue of night. Only the cirrus clous above to project a memory of the sol over Joshua Tree.

A pun: when climbing, fortune favors the boulder.