Sheer mesa, Cretaceous mudlands, lightning-blasted ponderosas. But what struck me were the sherds of a busted sixties coffee mug and an open safety pin.
Things You Find in the Desert
Tag Archives: hiking in New Mexico
Good Fences
“A juniper post can wear out two postholes.” And a juniper-branch fence can last centuries. This one, probably built by Navajo herders, once kept stock from crossing between mesas and lowlands.
Earth and Sky
Cabezón, one of the sacred mountains.
Old Moon
On raindrop-pecked sand, the subtle lunar crescent of an Archaic metate broken and abandoned a few thousand years ago.
SEAS
About 130 million years between tides.
Still Waiting
An Archaic mano, or hand grinding stone, begins its next few thousand years in the sand of a hearth. Time and weather have reduced the charcoal of ancient campfires to a shadow in the soil.
Alas, Poor Ferdinand!
Under a juniper instead of a cork tree. Picked clean by coyotes and bleached by the desert sun.
Yes, they were cold
…but the coyote was barefoot. Fair’s fair.
Where Dinosaurs walked
…and now, 150 million years later, so can we.
The Morrison Formation, deposited by rivers, deltas, and shallow seas. In rain or snow it reconstitutes to dinosaur poo—you will never get the mud off your boots.
The Skin of the Earth
Where we put our feet can change within a yard or two.
Also true for others’ feet.
BETSY JAMES: Worldbuilding and Wilderness 