Night in the Woods

I put on the backpack Saturday morning and headed up a ridge called Tanque Verde in the Rincon Mountains in Saguaro National Park.  I would camp for two nights in the same place and on the middle day climb to a peak far above the desert.  Today, I’ll only report on that first day of uphill backpacking to Juniper Basin.

Winter

with its birds

nesting in holes

in saguaros

its morning sun

finding them yellow

with bent light

its rays pretend

not to move

since sunset

peek around

the other side

and the birds laugh

 

Lifelike arms of the dead

protest my coming

they hiss

like a cornered possum

with no escape

A cairn of stacked rocks marks the trail of man.

A cairn of weathered rock marks the trail of god.

Higher up the ridge saguaros fade away.

Pinion pines, junipers, and live oaks replace them.

At 6,000 feet elevation, large trees and patches of snow, with a trickle of water, make a good campsite. 

The tree is dead and mammoth, a good four feet in diameter.  Maybe it choked on that stone it was eating.

Sunset over the ridge I’d be climbing on Sunday.

I could have walked all night in full moon light.

I have many more pictures of this secluded and peaceful place.