Posts tagged “Mt Olympus Wilderness Area

“Imperfect Men”

“It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree.  They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.  They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!” – John Muir

Aspen in the sky


Revisiting the Trail-side Tree-house….

My older son and I were hiking the Desolation Trail back in July of this year and happened to visit the tree-house that I featured in this post, Trail-side Tree-housefrom June of last year.  You might remember the little purple door in the base of tree?  Well, it looks like someone has done a little bit of renovation or remodeling in the last year and some months….

Desolation Trail shrine 1

Here’s another view from a little more to the right….

Desolation Trail shrine 2

Nobody answered when we knocked on the door….

Desolation Trail Shrine with purple door

My son noticed this little lock-box hanging in the branches on the left side of the tree…and among other things, there was a little notebook inside.

Desolation Trail shrine safe

“Peace of the breeze…joy of the sun….”

Desolation Trail shrine notepad 1

“There’s no wi-fi out here, but I promise you, the connection is much better.”

Desolation Trail shrine notepad 2

Many of the other entries pertained to people remembering their dogs who have passed over the years, but who loved to join their human companions out on the trails of Millcreek Canyon.


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Aspen corridor

Aspen sunrise


did you ever…

…look at things is if you might never see them again…?

Dried wildflowers 2

I imagine that we would see those things with a certain richness…

Dried wildflowers 4

…one that would surpass the experience of when we first saw them.

Dried wildflowers 1

I think it would be bittersweet, as well…

Dried wildflowers 6

…for while we would be sad that we would never see them again, we would be joyous that we had ever beheld them at all….

Dried wildflowers 3


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touch of red

mountain ash and aspen in fall


second verse

We mark ourselves here as a tiny part of that something-greater, a piece of the mystery and puzzle and wonder that is life…be it an accident or a gift, we do well to cherish it….

Fall trail in the morning


come walk with me

on a sunday morning

feel the crisp air on your face and the warming sun on your back as we follow the trail off and into the waiting mountains

turn around and marvel at the white bark glowing in the sunrise

winter-bare aspen preparing for the cold

the rich greenery of summer’s forest floor has turned golden and brown and looks bleak without the morning’s sun

but we are here with the waking day

rejoicing at the trail beneath our feet and the burning in our legs and lungs as we press ever upward from valley floor to mountain top

come walk with me and sing our quiet sunday song

mountain trail on a Fall morning