383: BLACK MOON and the BLACK CANYON

Tomorrow, the final day of September will bring a rare lunar event, a Black Moon. When there are two "new" moons in one month, the second moon is called a Black Moon, also known as the "dead" moon.  Unfortunately, you won’t actually be able to see it as the moon will appear invisible. It will just be very dark. Usually at night there is some light from the moon, but when there is a "new" moon, the moon 'disappears' from the sky because it is between the earth and the sun with it's illuminated side facing away from us. Interesting that it will occur simultaneous with the first session of the LDS General Conference.

Starting a week ago at the Fall Equinox, we are rapidly losing more and more light each day. Unlike the solstices where it seems like the suns stays still, on the fall equinoxes the sun is rapidly moving across the sky and we are losing close to about 2 minutes of daylight every day. 

A few days ago I traveled down to the Black Canyon in Colorado. The canyon's name owes itself to the fact that parts of the gorge only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day,  If you were to travel to the Black Canyon you would see some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock, and craggiest spires in North America. In the book, Images of America: The Black Canyon of the Gunnison the author Duane Vandenbusche states, "Several canyons of the American West are longer and some are deeper, but none combines the depth, sheerness, narrowness, darkness, and dread of the Black Canyon.

Here are a few photos taken a few days ago:

If you look closely you can see the river and the white rapids close to 2000 feet below. 

This is the ledge from where the first photo was taken. 

Despite the loss of light in the world and the ever increasing darkness that we face in our life, His light can always find a way to reach us. It is amazing how a little beam or flame or ray of light can light up a dark place. Even though the days are getting darker and darker rapidly, there are moments that the Sun with shine through whether through a break in the clouds just before sunset (for example this photo below taken on the edge of the Grand Mesa ) or......

....or in the earlier morning hours through a grove of trees as seen on a morning hike early on Sunday on the Grand Mesa.