It's the beginning of winter, and the rains are finally returning after a dry spell that nearly -- but only nearly -- made this December the driest December on record. What better time to post a photo from the desert, of a wild tree, in this case, the only tree for miles around. I just returned from the wet west side of the Olympics, reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire shrouded (in a shrine) under the branches of an enormous Sitka Spruce. Having just finished this magnificent homage to the wild of the desert, I post this photo in this same spirit.
This tree grows on BLM land, in Eastern Oregon. To find it you need merely to take terrible roads into the desolate Alvord Hills, and then leave the roads behind (just like Abbey!) and wander a while. You might run into pronghorn, or rattlesnakes, and certainly lizards, and if you're lucky, all three! If you find this solitary tree, sit a while and think of the seed from whence it grew, carried here on winds from the Steens, landing by chance in this sagebrush wilderness and finding just the right conditions to survive, to grow, perhaps to thrive. What makes this tree different? What sets this one apart? Those are questions only we humans can ask.... to this tree -- only another day, sunlight, the quest for water and the endurance of life in the desert. In your spirit, Abbey.
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