Bright aurora shine over southern Utah...

in an enormous geomagnetic storm this evening, the largest in nearly 20 years. Here are several wide views captured shortly after midnight of the rare (at this latitude) and dynamic light show. Behold the Aurora Borealis in its fullest expression.

The phenomenon began with quite a bit of color variation directly to the north. Parriott Mesa in silhouette on the right.

A gradual color shift towards orange and red occurred very slowly.

The brighter curtains of light moved gradually towards the northeast over a period of about an hour. Castleton Tower at far right.

UPDATE: Here’s a nice summary of the event by our local scribe: Aurora borealis brightens Castle Valley with a colorful display.

Resuming launch activities...

at the Round Mountain Missile Test Range, taking advantage of a weather window with calm winds. Flying model rockets is fun beyond description, but maybe it’s a guy thing.

The painted MOAB model rocket leaping off the pad to a 622 foot high apogee.

Zephyr under chute and softly landing below Round Mountain.

More lapis lazuli loveliness...

in the eponymously named bird, with now more than a dozen individuals pecking around the feeding stations. Gorgeous but tiny birds in the Cardinal family.

Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena).

Link to the mineral lapis lazuli.

Note to self: These images would be better if I cleaned the windows.

UPDATE 2 May 2024: Here’s an image, caught in direct sunlight, through clean windows.

The "Tip o' the Mesa" geocache...

on the high and pointy prow of Adobe Mesa was established by yours truly 10 years ago this month, and it was logged for only the third time just two days ago by an intrepid adventurer. It takes determined effort and the better part of a day to make it out to the end of the mesa from the Castleton-Gateway Road. The logged comment was terse: “Stunning view.” Yep.

The prominent prow of Adobe Mesa stands 1,800 feet above the viewer in this image.

Fun activity: GEOCACHING.

Mostly a glorified campground...

with minimal paleontological interpretation, future visitors to Utahraptor State Park are likely to be somewhat disappointed. The local chapter of the Utah Friends of Paleontology hosted a presentation delivered by park manager Joshua Hansen this evening where he provided some details on the new park being developed north of Moab.

I’ve requested that this diagram be posted on-line so that the public can understand the development plan. One will still be allowed to travel Willow Springs Road and Dalton Wells Road without paying an entrance fee.

High power rockets soared today...

above Ray’s Mesa in a remote corner of the Grand Valley in Colorado, just west of Grand Junction near the state line, organized and coordinated by the local Warp Core rocketry club. About a dozen men of all ages participated in the event and huge fun was had by all.

Launch controller Ben’s view of the launch pads, with my two-stage Majestic model rocket on the center launch rail ready for flight, the first of the day. Someone had to fly in order to check the winds aloft and I volunteered this high flyer.

My two-stage boosted Majestic soaring to an apogee of 2,275 feet (693 meters) on two “F” engines, with a successful recovery under parachute for a flight lasting 2 minutes and 18 seconds, softly landing about 150 feet (~50 m) away from the pad.

Dozens of launches were made throughout the morning by the various club members. Nerd alert!

The point of legal diversion...

of Castle Creek where most of the streamflow is routed into a sluice which then enters a 1.8 mile-long (2.9 km) pipe and is ultimately delivered to a farm’s irrigation headworks lower in the valley. The natural river channel is mostly dry for the next two miles until the point where excess water is returned to the creek.

Two observations: 1) It’s not exactly a healthy riparian system, and 2) blue tarps have limitless applications.

View upstream.

View downstream with the natural channel of Castle Creek off to the right.

Castleton Tower casts a sharp shadow...

on the face of Adobe Mesa at sunset during this time of year. The shadow will slowly creep further westward (to the right) over the next two months when it will nearly align with the prominent prow on the summer solstice. The Tower is nature’s sundial, a natural time-keeping gnomon.

More senseless closures...

of long existing roads in Castle Valley by the tools at the Bureau of Land Management. This one will make vehicular-assisted evacuations in case of search and rescue at Castleton Tower a bit more problematic. Real smart.

Someone is going to be injured by the much-too-thin and virtually invisible wire cable that is strung between the newly installed posts.

One of the closure signs recently installed by the BLM elsewhere in Castle Valley and shown in a previous blog post has already been ripped down. Hayduke lives!

The Ken's Lake Proving Ground...

in the southern Spanish Valley is a nice alternative launch site for higher powered rockets. Several were fired off today.

The MOAB heading to 639 feet.

Frangible Arcas soaring in front of the snowy La Sal Mountains to an apogee of 1,343 feet.