Daniel Zeller Photography

It’s been a challenging week on a whole host of different fronts, and I needed a dose of inner peace (brought to you by Mother Nature).

On my way home from work, I could tell that the high clouds in the sky might make for a decent sunset tonight, so I loaded up the camera and headed east to Lake Cuyamaca. It’s only an hour from San Diego, but I knew that I was going to be pressed for time to get there in time for sunset. I barely made it.

I really didn’t have time to look for the best compositions, so I just set up my tripod off to the side of the Sunrise Highway on its way to the summit of Mount Laguna. It was just what the doctor ordered.

In addition to a pretty spectacular sunset, I was surrounded by songbirds—whose distinct tweets were unfamiliar to me—putting on an evening symphony, accompanied by chirping crickets in the background. It was soothing.

Not long after I took my last photo and was standing in the field simply enjoying the concert in the fading light, a pack of coyotes chimed in with their yaps and howls. They weren’t all that far away and I decided I didn’t want to end this glorious evening getting chased by a pack of coyotes, so I put away the gear and drove to Mount Laguna.

On the way up to the summit, a rather large coyote popped onto the highway not more than 75 feet from my car, scaring me once again. On the way down from the summit, there was a man standing beside his pickup truck on the shoulder, waving me down. I stopped to see what was up. He had just hit a deer (which was nowhere to be seen), and his bumper was smashed against his tire making his truck undriveable. There wasn’t much I could do for him and he thanked me for stopping.

Mother Nature can be soothing and unnerving, all in one night.

Enjoy the sunset over Sunrise Highway!