Natural Habitat

Day 320: This is a Crow in its natural habitat. For all of how much I love wildflowers and the critters of the forest, it is the high, bleak and desolate places which truly command my heart. I am too old, beat-up and decrepit to get to the ones which are dearest to me, but there are others almost equally beautiful still within the reach of my strength and stamina. Today, I went up the Lakes Trail on a MeadoWatch hike, recording the phenological stages of specific plants at plots with precise geographic coordinates. At the top of the transect, the sub-alpine plants thin out until only a few of the hardiest species remain. Continuing up, the environment becomes a moonscape of ankle-wrenching rocks, layer upon layer laid down by the stratovolcano which is Mount Rainier. It was this landscape which drew me higher today, my soul craving the open space of the Mountain's rocky alpine zone. Here is where perspective rises up and shows you that your human presence is no more than a speck of grit in the cosmos. It is a metaphysical journey which, oddly, I find eminently consoling, comforted in the knowledge that whatever happens in this world is of very little significance indeed.