Mighty Tree, Red Cliffs

The day after I made this photograph, Terri and I embarked on our first canyoneering expedition from our camp just downstream from this spot. We spent the day climbing and swimming through the extremely tight (and chilly!) confines of the upper canyon, eventually rappelling through a hole in the roof of a giant orange sandstone cathedral.

I spent the evening we arrived exploring the lower canyon we would come down the next day. It was refreshingly cool, a deep gash of lush and green through the surrounding scorched desert. I photographed this tree in the last filtered light from the planet above, a brief breeze tickling the leaves between inverted lightning-bolt branches.

I like this photograph – it reminds me of places I've been that don't change, places where time is an trivial detail.