Frustration - sun on Black Mesa

This is not the photo I wanted; I'm including it as a story of photographic frustration.
I had found a place on the mesas where there was a view through a gap in a ridge down to Black Mesa, sacred to San Ildefonso Pueblo. It was a stormy winter day, but behind me the clouds were breaking and blowing, sending shafts of sunlight dancing (slowly) across the lower terrain. I thought it likely that one would light up Black Mesa, leaving the rest of the landscape dark. I waited there for 90 minutes; on many occasions, a light shaft would head toward Black Mesa, only to close off or head in another direction. I could have sworn the ghost of some trickster was up in heaven steering the light to annoy me. Finally, shortly before sunset, the back edge of this last light beam slightly illuminated Black Mesa - it is the elephant-back shape at the rear edge of the light.
By the time I got back to my car, I could barely see.
By the way - this is the Black Mesa about 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe. It is NOT the infamous Black Mesa of northeast Arizona (on Navajo and Hopi lands) where Peabody has a couple of huge coal mines.
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