9.6.10 Memorial Day Photo Expedition, Sal del Rey

I was interested in what seemed like miniature ecosystems or small worlds when I arrived at the tributary stream that fed La Sal del Rey. These were often small hillocks topped with vegetation, often succulents. Years ago on Lake Superior, an acquaintance had told me that the small rocks just off the shore were the very beginnings of an ecosystem. They were desert isles, isolated tiny worlds in the process of creation. I was skeptical partly because of the grandeur of his claim but also because I was then smitten with his own sweetheart., a woman named Elizabeth Mendelsohn. So I was unlikely to concede much to him. He had a hardened, knotted personality with a hippie's preoccupation with seeing deeply. I still remember how his ideas would come to me as challenges, bullying and defensive. I loved Elizabeth's wiry, simple physique as well as her decency. She loved my samoyed mix, Olaf. They soon left for San Francisco. It is an E.O. Wilson or a John Muir idea that the earth is at first scraped clean from a glacier or a volcano, then it gradually resumes the natural succession or development. One of the things I looked for were these barren outcroppings. At a very small scale there were also grand canyons and desert mesas.

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