Sunset in the mountains

Sunsets are hard to beat, photographically speaking.  The light just does all the right things, and you get rewarded - assuming you have your camera ready, of course!  Most photographers go out with a sunset in mind, since it is such a popular time of day to shoot.  Is it your favorite?  It’s certainly up there for me, though I am a big fan of morning light too.  When Mother Nature decides to throw in some clouds for you as well, you feel doubly blessed.  That was the case for me when I captured this image, which was taken on some country road outside of Beaver Creek, CO.  I was meandering in the rental car, looking for interesting things to photograph, and was getting that itch that comes around sunset, knowing that I needed to hurry up and plant myself and start shooting.  I was hoping for a stream or a pond in the woods, but never found one.  The sky was nice and the light was fading, but no real clouds were around so I thought it was just going to be a regular old sunset in the mountains.  As it turned out, these clouds materialized quickly, the light was fading fast, and I was stuck on this back road with no real way to frame the sunset.  You see, the sun was hidden behind the mountains.  So I just pulled over and hopped out, grabbed the tripod and camera, and set up to shoot.  Very quickly the light came across those clouds as the sun went through its last hurrah, and I was glad to witness it because it faded just as quickly as it arrived.