I’m just back from a deeply shifting trip to Southern California. We spent most of our time there away from the urban centers, hiking and exploring mountain lake regions and the Mojave desert.
I took this photo along the Hidden Valley Trail, Joshua Tree National Park. This is a short and easy hike that allows you to explore the enclosed valley that received a lot more rain in the 20th century. The huge boulders protected a large untouched grassland. Now you hike in through the entrance that rancher William Keys blasted for the benefit of his cattle to see Joshua Trees, pines, oaks and yucca along the loop trail.
What a landscape. I’m still processing my response to the whole adventure and I’ve been sitting with something that photographer Ansel Adams said around it all:
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”