Got up early to get my camera gear ready and leave by 7am to arrive by 7:30, for a perfect day at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument 27 miles away, to shoot the eclipse. I stepped outside and saw the cloudy sky and almost went back in, (photo#1)
Something told me not to give up, the clouds might burn away enough for at least a hazy view of it.
When I arrived this is what greeted me at the entrance, (photos #2&3).
My plan was to get the sun back lighting the Ruins of The Big House. NOT OPEN UNTIL 9 and clouds to boot??? How could this be? So I parked outside the gate, and noticed the clouds were burning away, so I started getting some pics of the early phase of the eclipse. Finally the sun got high enough to clear the clouds and by then the moon had already covered about a quarter of the sun, (photos #4 & 5). Finally they opened the gate. For some reason they chose this day to do some repairs in the visitors center, so it's normal entrance to the ruins was closed. Go figure. We had to walk through a small gate around the side of the building to access the ruins. I finished getting shots of the eclipse at its maximum of 78% coverage, (photo #6)started to walk back out the gate and was greeted by who else, The Gate Keeper, (photos #7,8,9).
The Ranger came quickly and relocated Mr Gate Keeper to a more remote gate to watch over.
So what started out like a bust, turned into a pretty rewarding day. Hope you enjoy.