Morning was a special time for me, as I awoke early to watch the clouds over Big Maria. The clouds were usually there on summer mornings. First they appeared over the pass to the north, tiny and grey in the distance. As dawn and the clouds grew closer, the clouds would blush pink, then orange, then gold. At last they were centered over Big Maria and shone pure white as the sun rose over the peaks. Often I would watch them as I played outside in the morning coolness. By ten o'clock it was far too hot to be outside, so I would spend the rest of the day inside, cooled by the "swamp cooler".

The photo below was downloaded from the Webshots Community, freely available for personal use.