Sitgreaves Mountain and Summer Thunderheads, Coconino Plateau, Arizona
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The Coconino Plateau of northern Arizona is a high, cool and dry land. Across much of it lies the San Francisco Volcanic Field, a 50-mile wide swath of relatively young (1-4 million years old; some as young as only 1,000 years) volcanic features, most of them since having become covered by vast forests. Basically, anything between Flagstaff and Williams, Arizona that isn't flat was some kind of volcanic eruption, large or small.
Sitgreaves Mountain on the Kaibab National Forest is one of the most prominent volcanic mountains near Williams ("Gateway to the Grand Canyon"). Sitgreaves is a lumpy bunch of lava domes that erupted from fissures in the Earth's crust.
In this photograph, I was taken by the rapidly building cumulus and thunderhead clouds of the summer monsoon season. In the foreground is a horse pasture, as green as it gets around here on the ground. As the clouds continue to build, thunderstorms begin and lightning flashes and, hopefully, the rains come. Water is precious up here.
Photo location: Pittman Valley, between Williams and Parks, Coconino County, Arizona
