Bushwhacking near the Continental Divide Trail. Broken land: stone, mud, sand, concretions. Overall colors are dun, but sometimes, bright against the yellow, a deep red or black. Weathered, skeletal, not a land friendly to humans. No water but the distant Puerco River. Sagebrush and juniper—the piñon is dead from drought.
The particular crisp softness of walking on frost-heaved Cretaceous dirt.
A doe and her grown fawn floated away from us, bouncing light as…but nothing bounces light as a deer.
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WORLD-BUILDING and WILDERNESS: 
Nice word imagines…
This is so evocative. Feel like I’m there hiking with you. Very much like a haibun…. Love getting these word paintings in between the spam and petitions (which I sign of course, but they don’t lift my spirits!).