Beautiful End of Day

There is something magical about sunsets in New Mexico.

And then there was this recent one in Albuquerque.
I came out of the RV and was greeted by this phase of the setting sun. I thought this was quite colorful and would have been happy with just this one shot of the golds, oranges, and purples.

I considered heading back, but the slight changes in the appearance of the whitish section and expansion of the golds kept me stationary.

As the brilliant golds faded, I thought the display was about to end and began to look at other sections of the sky.

I looked upward and caught this display of muted pinks overhead.

A nice ending, I thought.

Then, as I once again focused on the horizon, I was greeted with a skyful of orange. It was as though I was being treated to a sunset encore.

Gradually, the orange gave way to a return of the blues and purples overhead.





Near the horizon, the golds put in what I thought had to be a final appearance.





As the gold disap-peared, the orange, too, seemed to fade as the sun's disap-pearance neared.

I began my walk back to the RV.

A backward glance, however, showed the oranges appearing to become more brilliant.

I shot this photo through the trees and headed back to my original observation point to catch what must surely be the last flickers of light.

Surprisingly, the sky seemed a bit brighter and oranges seemed to be expanding to fill the sky.

Then, as if re-appearing for curtain calls, the golds, oranges, purples, and blues took a final bow.

As the sun sank even further below the horizon, the orange seemed to occupy more and more of the sky.

With this final burst of orange, the fifteen-minute end-of-the-day display came to a glorious close.