Summer solstice triple sunrise...

as captured this morning from the east end of Buchanan Lane in Castle Valley. The sun rises (#1) and is eclipsed by Baby Carriage Rock, it rises (#2) again and is eclipsed by Castleton Tower, only to rise (#3) a final time to mark the longest day of the year. It’s gonna be hot, too.

Composite of three stacked images, captured between 6:52 am and 7:41 am MDT.

UPDATE: This image is highlighted in this week’s Castle Valley Comments.

A gorgeous but poisonous southwestern plant...

that expresses enormous white blossoms larger than the palm of your hands, sacred datura is sometimes used as a narcotic and hallucinogen by Native Americans.

Sacred datura (Datura wrightii) in Lions Park.

Jimson Weed, oil on linen by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1936. Image courtesy Indianapolis Museum of Art.

A highly hazy horizon...

nearly obscures Castle Valley in the distance, likely due to wildfires burning near Bryce Canyon and in northern Arizona. Here’s the view across the sandstone expanse of Arches National Park caught early this morning from the Moab Brands mountain bike trail system.

Parriott Mesa, the Priest & Nuns, Castleton Tower and Adobe Mesa are all visible 15.5 miles (~25 km) away from this vantage point on the Moab Brands mountain bike trail system.

Priming and painting...

one of the larger missiles in the arsenal during these hot days with low humidity.

The Apogee Zephyr is a four inch diameter rocket that flies with a 38 mm engine mount and should easily get to a mile high.

The Zephyr twins, the larger of which still needs black paint on the nose cone and a final clear coat, but it’s ready to fly. The smaller has flown frequently on “D” and “E” rocket engines to nearly 1,000 ft (~300 m).

In significantly reduced numbers...

this spring despite large flocks visiting the ground feeding stations during winter, the melodic songs of this member of the blackbird family have been missed. Here’s one today perched at the summit of a cottonwood doing his thing.

Male Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) belting out its song.

Evidence of night roosting bats...

can be found in the form of guano pellets and insect parts, dropped when insectivorous bats take a short break from their nocturnal foraging activities. If you ate half your body weight in insects every night you’d need to take a break and evacuate your bowels, too.

Bat guano is an excellent fertilizer and wars have been fought over this precious resource. Sweep these nuggets of concentrated nitrogen up and toss them in your garden.

An early morning start...

to my daily rides is increasingly necessary as it’s heading toward 100° F by the weekend.

This morning: Panorama of the Round Mountain Annex to Castle Valley National Park. (Click on image to expandify.)

The singletrack at 7:45 am MDT. Cool. Quiet. Critters. Sublime.

The snow is nearly gone...

and summertime storm clouds blossom over the high La Sal Mountains. Less than two weeks until the summer solstice.

UPDATE: Peak flow on the Colorado River has likely just occurred, capping an unremarkable spring runoff. Here’s the one year hydrograph for the Colorado River at the Cisco gage showing that this year’s peak flow (blue line) is one-third of last year’s value (brown line) and less than half the median value (dotted line).

Counting every drop...

of legally diverted water from Castle Creek, now being performed digitally and remotely since the Utah Department of Natural Resources has just installed a real-time monitoring point using a solar powered sonic water level sensor and radio transmitter. Previously, someone would have to visit this site and visually read the staff gage in the Parshall flume through which the water is flowing in order to calculate the flow. This new system is undoubtedly calibrated to the old staff gage, and likely radios the data in real-time, or perhaps daily.

Newly installed electronic gaging station next to Castle Creek above the town of Castle Valley. Note the metal Parshall flume box through which the water is flowing, away from the viewer in this image.

The sonic water level sensor at the upstream end of the Parshall flume. Note staff gage on side of flume.

The diverted water is claimed under three water rights granted in 1885, 1891 and 1933 for 2.0, 1.033 and 1.9172 cfs (cubic feet per second) respectively according to Utah DNR records.

UPDATE: An additional remote water gauging station has been installed on the 14-inch diameter iron pipe that transfers water from the point of diversion to the fields for irrigation lower in the valley. This is about 1.1 miles below the point of diversion seen above.

More model rocketry goodness...

was enjoyed today at the Ken’s Lake Proving Ground on a quiet and calm morning with two good friends.

Doorknob takes to the sky.

Arreaux lifting off with the GPS radio tracker in the payload bay.

The flight of the Arreaux at Ken’s Lake Proving Ground south of Moab, rendered on Google Earth using flight telemetry. Cool tech.