Captured Moments of a Spring Storm

I love spring storms!  The beauty of the changing cloud cover mixed with the rain and sun are just gorgeous here!  A spring storm blew through Friday evening, and I was able to capture some beautiful shots of the changing sky.

The clouds were rolling around, tossing, and rumbling...

I always love the contrast of the bright green of the pine trees against the dark blue of the angry sky...

I knew a rainbow had to appear shortly, as the clouds were darkening while the sun was blazing through..

The emotion that the skies billow out is incredible...

And there it was! A perfect rainbow appeared and stayed for a short moment, and then disappeared again...

We hopped in the pickup, as it was a perfect time for a drive.  Rain drops began to appear on the windshield as we drove, but didn't amount to anything...

As we drove, we could see the storm off in the distance over Mount Spokane.

Taking pictures through the windshield doesn't always work... but you get the idea!

We decided to drive a little farther along the river as the storm had passed, but the clouds were still dancing, and roiling through the sky, and amazing colors were all around us.  We stopped to look at this mountain spring that just pours water out of the mountain hillside along the road.  Many people use this water for their drinking water, as it is so pure and clear, piped straight out of a mountain spring, and runs like this year round!

As we drove, the clouds continued to capture the viewfinder in my camera... unfortunately the crack in the windshield of the truck wasn't so pretty...

Every vehicle we own here in Idaho has a cracked windshield.  We get the cracks fixed, and more appear. So, it is just a fact of life here.... with all the log trucks spitting up gravel everywhere, if you drive your vehicle very much, it will eventually sport a crack... lol!

As we rounded a corner, this view was spread out before us.  I had my husband stop the pickup, so I could get out, (and not have to deal with the cracked windshield!)  and get some pictures of this incredible scene.

Wow!

 Oh, the majestic stillness and beauty of this scene!

The horses grazing were completely unaware of the beautiful picture they were a part of!

Playing with the settings on my camera... love how the light is caught shining out from the clouds!

It is times like this that you wish you could just stop the hands on the clock, and hold time still for the moment!

I think this picture happens to be my favorite out of all the shots I took of this scene.  I was playing with different settings on my camera, trying to capture the scene before me as close to what my visual eye was seeing.  It is very tricky to be able to get your camera to replay a scene on the screen exactly as your eye can see it.  I loved how this picture turned out.  It seemed to capture the brilliant colors perfectly.

We left the horses to their beautiful scenery, and continued on our drive....

As we approached a large open field, at first in the distance, it appeared to be a bunch of white-tailed deer, but as we got closer, we realized there was a herd of elk grazing.

There were about 8 of them, and they weren't too sure whether to leave or stay.  They watched us very carefully.

A couple of them darted into the wood cover, but then came back as we silently sat there and watched them.

After a while, they went back to grazing...

Then, something spooked them, and most of them turned, and ran into the woods.

Except for this elk.  He (or she) stood their ground, and watched us very closely...

Finally we decided to let them go back to grazing in peace, and drove off. I can imagine this elk thinking he was really something... lol! He had warded off the danger to his fellow elk by standing his ground.  They are very interesting creatures with no tail, and a large white area on their rear, with a long straggly mane around their neck.

I thought our excitement was over for the night... but t'was not!  Just a few bends down the road, we spotted what appeared to be about 30-40 elk in this large open field.  My dear husband stopped the vehicle again!

The view here was really spectacular, and honestly, my camera did not capture the moment at all.  It was getting dark, and the colors in the sky set against the backdrop of the mountains in the distance was amazing. I couldn't pick up all the contrasts in color that were spread out before us.

I zoomed in as far as my lens would go... and caught a few of the elk watching us, but most of them were unconcerned about us...

A view of the mountains in the far distance...

Most of the elk paid no attention to us, as they were grazing a long way from the road.

As I watched these elk, I realized how smart these guys are.  They know where to hide out during hunting season... I heard many people talking this year about how difficult a time they had hunting elk this year as they seemed to have literally disappeared.  Well, wherever they went, they hid out well, but now that hunting season has passed, they were grazing in the wide open spaces without any fear at all.

Some of them were aware that I was standing out there snapping pictures, but for the most part, we were ignored as the elk grazed.

The sun was beginning to dip down beyond the distant horizon, but the colors blazing across the sky were still glorious...

 So, we continued our drive, as darkness was falling...

We drove farther along the river banks...

These pictures were captured behind the windshield, as my husband refused to stop every time I saw an interesting cloud formation... he thought one picture of the clouds was enough, lol!

We took a little side road, and found that it carried us right down to the river.  It was so beautiful down here as we drove!

It was almost 9:00 p.m., and this is how much daylight was still abounding in the skies!

This area is where a huge fireworks display takes place on July 4th.  Because of the huge expansive nature of the skies and mountains in the distance, they have to wait until 10:30 p.m. to start the fireworks, and even then it is not totally dark.

Incredibly beautiful isn't it!

I love to take spontaneous drives like this, just following whatever roads spark our fancy.  We always seem to find such glorious views when we are able to do this!

Our sightseeing was about to come to an end, as there was little light left in the sky...

But look at the tower the clouds had just created... wow!

Since the sun had gone to wake up the other side of the world, we realized it was time to head for home...

... so we crossed over the bridge to head back home.  I was thrilled about all the beautiful scenery that had played across the skies as we drove, and the fact that I had a chance to capture it on camera.  I hope you enjoyed the drive with us from the lens of my camera... the beauty and creative originality of our Creator displayed in the skies, and world around us never ceases to amaze me, and always leaves me with a very thankful heart to be alive in this beautiful world that we live in!