December 2020 - Vermilion Cliffs
We drove from Vegas into southeastern Utah, and made a few stops along the way! We went to the Vermilion Cliffs with the hope of seeing a condor. Our hopes were not in vain and we saw quite a few - though they were _really_ far away, so it was more like seeing large black dots. But still fun knowing whatt hose large black dots were. Then we stopped by Horseshoe Bend since it was on the way, and continued on to our final stop: viewing the Great Conjunction of Jupyter and Saturn shortly after sunset in Monument Valley. That part was incredible!
We drove from Vegas into southeastern Utah, and made a few stops along the way! We went to the Vermilion Cliffs with the hope of seeing a condor. Our hopes were not in vain and we saw quite a few - though they were _really_ far away, so it was more like seeing large black dots. But still fun knowing whatt hose large black dots were. Then we stopped by Horseshoe Bend since it was on the way, and continued on to our final stop: viewing the Great Conjunction of Jupyter and Saturn shortly after sunset in Monument Valley. That part was incredible!
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| The Vermilion Cliffs | A California Condor! | This building must be the release point - you can see 5 condors sitting on it, with a 6th flying off! |
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| Another seemingly popular hangout spot with a pair of condors | The third hangout spot, featuring 4 condors plus a fifth coming in to land | The condors that flew up over the cliffs were mobbed by clouds of crows |
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| A Ferruginous Hawk | The moon rising over the cliffs | |
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| The Colorado River from the Navajo Bridge, as it heads into the Grand Canyon | A quick stop by the Horseshoe Bend since it was on the way. Always great to see! | |
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| The Great Conjunction of Jupyter and Saturn as seen in Monument Valley. Stunning! | Under the light of an oncoming car | During the Great Conjunction: Jupyter with its 4 Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) in a plane, and Saturn possibly with a moon or two visible as well. |
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| The biggest European Starling I've ever seen |