On Sunday morning, after recovering some of my body core temperature (which had dropped because Jeff had stripped me of my sleeping bag in the sub-zero temps), I noticed this Utah Juniper Tree (Juniperus osteoperma).
The morning sun was still low on the horizon and the light was very warm. Standing alone, growing out of a crack in the rock, the mix of leaved and bare branches gave this tree a very animated character. Adam estimates this two and a half foot tall juniper is approximately 100 years old and in poor health. Junipers can live for thousands of years. One of the oldest junipers in Utah is the Jardine Juniper which has a great mountain bike ride up to it. It's 3200 years old and you can find more about it Here.
It's humbling to think that when this waist tall tree sprouted out of the rock 100 years ago the Wright Brother's first powered flight at Kitty Hawk was only 3 years old, San Francisco was in ruins from the Great Earthquake of 1906, and WWI was still 8 years in the future.
The passage of time in the desert happens on a different scale. Signs of the past are painted beautifully on every canyon wall. Not covered by soil or forests millions of years of erosion are visible in the features of the land. Evidence of the beginning and end of life are everywhere. It's a land of extremes - which I think is why I find it so appealing. It's a place where it isn't necessary to jump off cliffs to feel one's own mortality, jumping off cliffs just accentuates the feeling!
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