Adventures in the Providence Mountains, Mojave National Preserve, 1964 - 2009

WILD HORSE MESA

It has been a strenuous, vertical climb up the sheer wall of massive basalt.  You have finally reached the level summit of smooth red rock, far above the valley floor.  There is no human being within ten miles.  Reclining on the warm, flat rock, you observe bighorn sheep grazing in quiet canyons below.  Pinion, creosote, and cholla whisper in the warm, soft breeze.  A wren alights on a juniper branch nearby, then flits below the precipice.  An occasional cloud shadow meanders across the vast desert floor, then up and beyond the distant mountainsides.  Pastel alluvial fans rise to distant gray limestone ranges. 

You contemplate the vastness and constancy of sky and desert. Your awareness of space, freedom and timelessness is profound.

Your solitude is infinite and eternal.  
                                                       

Will Walsh