Welcome to the Desert

 

months since Death Valley
one intoxicated dream
turns and returns to where it was
or somewhere like it
another desert 

 

Red rocks jut upward on the west side of Zion National Park just as they do on the popular and crowded east side, but the only way to see them is to hike.  Tyler Creek is fine route if you start early to catch the sun’s first rays on the peaks and avoid the afternoon heat. 

 

High on the canyon wall, a lizard begins to warm himself in the rising sun, I imagine he does.  

 

Manganese, carried by sliding water and fixed by bacteria, adds black stripes to the red sandstone here on the western flank of the Colorado Plateau, where it joins the Basin-Range Physiographic Province—that great stretch that extends from here all the way across Nevada.  Many kinds of rocks are reported to resident here, and I hope to find some of them in the weeks ahead.  

 

Deep in the canyon, Tyler Creek follows a crack in the Colorado Plateau and waters a host of oaks, pines and firs.  They provide just enough breaks in their canopy to the see the red cliffs above.  

 

An unearthly feeling to arrive among the red rocks of Utah.  This landscape so foreign to the trees of Pasadena.  A strong reminder of how far away from home I am.  

To enlarge any picture, just click on it.  Escape to return.