Evening Sky

Last night I was in Grand Marais playing softball. It's an activity that I am not particularly great at but the team needs another player. About half way through the game, the blue skies with puffy white clouds turned black. We got spits and sputters of rain but managed to finish the game.

Afterward I drove home watching an ever-changing sky. Coming up the hill from Grand Marais, there were two rainbows on my right. The furtherest right one was the brightest with colors going green-yellow-red-purple. The colors on the left rainbow went purple-red-yellow-green. I am assuming that they were caused by another shower at a different angle to me.

After passing Hedstrom's mill, the clouds broke up more. The setting sun gave me bright orange clouds with a blue sky. I'm trying to find the correct shade of blue to tell you what I saw but azure seems to fit best.

Moving further up the Trail the clouds were gray but the reflected sun made parts of them look pink. Of course, the blue sky continued to show between these clouds.

By mid-Trail I was back to orange with some dark gray clouds. This time the blue sky was a bright aquamarine. Luckily the sun was below the horizon as I drove along Poplar Lake. If your timing is wrong, the setting summer sun can shine directly in your eyes all along Poplar Lake.

Once I got up to Iron Lake and Loon Lake, the blue sky had turned a very pale blue. It was almost white with just a hint of blue tint. The clouds were a steel gray.

Coming down the hill at Gunflint, there were a few streaks of sunlight hitting the clouds. They were more the yellow of a setting sun with gray clouds overhead.

It isn't very often that the colors of the sky change so dramatically as you drive along. Because of the trees alongside the Trail, you only get a very narrow view of the sky. Rarely are there huge vistas and that probably contributed to the changes in colors that I saw. Whatever the reason, it turned a very familiar drive into something with a surprise around every corner.