Earlier this week, I mentioned the hike I took at the Niobrara Valley Preserve Monday afternoon and evening.  I carried my camera on the walk but waited in vain for decent photography light.  The heavy clouds started to thin as sunset time neared, but the sun dropped below the horizon before ever popping through.  However, a short time later, as the clouds continued to thin, they suddenly lit up with beautiful pink and purple color.

This tree apparently supported a fallen tree or branch for quite a few years – long enough to have molded itself around it.

Tree silhouettes against the post-sunset sky.

Not long after the color faded from the sky, the first stars started to appear and the clouds continued to disperse.  By the time I reached the car, most of the sky was clear and the stars were strikingly bright in the sky.  It was only about 7:30 pm, so I decided to extend my hike a little and found a few trees to put in front of the stars.

Starry sky along the Niobrara River.  This pine tree is the same one I featured a few posts ago as I compared three years of photos showing fire recovery.

.

At the time, I thought the glow on the horizon was the nearby town of Valentine, but now I wonder if it was actually the very last of the glow from the sun.

Listening to coyotes and great horned owls while admiring more stars than anyone could count in a lifetime of lifetimes was a pretty great way to end the day.