Red Rock Canyon view large 11

Diane, I think you need to strive for a wider range of tones.  The clouds should be white, not gray, and I'd expect to see a variety of tones in the landscape.  This lighting is pretty flat, and you can enhance it with your B&W conversion processing.  There are so many ways to convert to B&W that I can't give a specific recommendation.  I use Nik software for my B&W conversions.

Thanks so much for the comment and suggestions, Stephen.  I've been working only with Picasa and while it generally does all I need, it certainly does not have all the bells and whistles of other programs.  I guess, now that I'm retired, I'll have no excuse NOT to learn Photoshop.

I did play around a bit more with some contrast and highlights that I believe address some of your suggestions and, in my opinion, make the picture better.