Time

My rescue hound, Grace, and I stumbled on this spot on one of our morning walks. I thought it had great Milky Way potential. I wanted to capture the Mily Way arch, which is only visible in spring. Later in the year the Mily Way is more overhead making for vertical panoramas. I had one Friday night in June that I knew was going to be my last chance to capture the image for 2026.

This photo represents the circle of time only seen at night. The aurora represents current time with me taking the photos. The red and white banded Wind River Formation is approximately 50 million years old, which leads your eye to the Wind River Mountain Range to the right. This mountain range was formed about 50-65 million years ago and connects to the Milky Way core. The Milky Way dates to about 10-13 billion years old. The Milky Way leads you to the left where the Absaroka Mountain Range sits in the distance and is in geologic time very similar to the Wind River Formation badlands where this panorama starts. All of this is part of the Universe which likely started with the Big Bang Theory 13.8 billion years ago.

The geologic processes in the panorama are changing with time. The red and white badlands were deposited by erosion from the neighboring mountain ranges like the Wind River Range and the disappearing Washakie Range.  The Wind River basin filled like a bathtub creating the Wind River Formation. The Wind River Range is the old grandfather that is overseeing the basin standing tall and proud but slowly changing with erosion and uplift. The Absaroka Mountain Range on the other hand was created by shield volcanoes near the WY-MT border consisting of ash and mud/lava flows primarily. The Milky Way keeps watch at night with the Dark Horse Nebula dancing across the night sky. The aurora borealis was a spectacular treat as it was not expected to reach our latitude. That is often the mystery of our Lady Aurora.

Captured by Johanna Thompson at Dubois, Wyoming

Gear: Canon EOS 6D with Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 lens

Panorama, blue hour blend, nightscape image, stitched in Lightroom:

Foreground, 9 shots, 24mm, 1/60 sec., F/2.8, ISO 250,

Sky, 24 shots (4 at each stop stacked) 24mm, 30 sec., F/2.8, ISO 3200.