Brief Light Show

It was cold, windy and very gray. I'd given up on any sunset and was inside my tent looking for dinner. I heard my nephew shouting something. I thought he was telling me my tent stakes were pulling up out of the granite sand. I turned and looked up and saw something I have never witnessed before--the sky which had been a dark, dark gray was now highlighted by intense orange and magenta colors, and about twenty feet up were low clouds swirling clockwise. They looked like the magic thrown from the palms of a wizard. At least that's what I was shrieking as I ran around like Pee Wee Herman snapping photos. Royce Lakes Basin. John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California, USA. August 2010.