As one turns onto the road leading into the Island in the Sky district in Canyonlands National Park, one may wonder why they call it "Island in the Sky" because it doesn't really look much different than the rest of the landscape outside of Moab, Utah. But if you take the road all the way to its end, you'll discover that you've actually been driving on a huge mesa elevated thousands of fee above the flood plain of the Colorado and Green Rivers below. It really IS an Island in the Sky!

On one visit, I had to wait out a rather dramatic thunderstorm passing through when I arrived at the parking area at the end of the road. After several hours spent in my truck waiting out the storm, the sky began to clear and, as clearing storms often do, the clouds began to form fantastic shapes. I captured this one hanging over the cliffs of the park in the late afternoon a little before sunset.

I'm rather fond of this image printed on Fuji Crystal Archive, High Gloss Metal or face-mounted Acrylic.