For some reason, I have never been a huge fan of the desert. Maybe it is the heat and the lack of shade or lush foliage that leaves me feeling parched, both physically and spiritually. However, having spent two nights there on Thursday and Friday, I have come away with new awareness and appreciation. My father always loved the desert, particularly in the spring when it was in bloom. He made annual treks to see the colors and the flowers and listen to the voices there that called him, the ones only he heard, the ones that carried him into the deeper recesses of his complex mind. He always came away refreshed and renewed. Now I think I was introduced to his appreciation the last few days.
The sky has a deep and penetrating blue as it becomes the backdrop for the sharp contrast of the red and stark sandstone. When I think of the desert, too, I am reminded of Georgia O’Keeffe and her love of the stark desert beauty around Taos, New Mexico where she lived and painted. And for me, part of the awareness and appreciation of the colors and textures are the same elements that I employ when I am thinking of creating a cloth design or imagining space and how something needs to be left open to chance and surprise, like the face of these desert mountains.
One morning we decided to climb Camelback Mountain in Echo Canyon in Phoenix. Phoenix is supposed to have the best urban hiking in the country, a fact that surprised me because I always boasted that we had this claim in Portland, Oregon. We had no idea what we were getting into with this hike. The stairs at the trailhead seemed harmless, so we ventured up, eager and ready for some good morning exercise. The elevation is 2,704 feet above sea level and the elevation gain is about 1,200 feet. It is all layered sandstone with plenty of rocks and boulders to climb over and around.
Some of the trail is so steep that there is a cyclone fence lining the edge as well as a metal handrail that you use to pull yourself up and higher to the next level. We went up the Summit Trail at the beginning of the Echo Canyon Park.
When we climbed up past this area, I turned around to see where we had been and took this photo. At this point, my husband was taking every step with great precaution because of his inability to use his left arm and shoulder from his surgery. At this point, he was regretting the climb, not wanting to re-injure his shoulder and begin the process of healing all over again.
I was loving the climbing and pulling up and over the rocks, the strenuous task of the journey. About halfway up the climb, we stopped to talk to a man about our age and he told us about this 80+ year old man at the summit named “Sonny” who climbed Camelback three times a day, 6 days a week for a total of 80,000 times to his calculation. Within 15 minutes we ran into him as he was on his way down. I asked, “Are you Sonny?” He was wiry, tan, and about 5’6” tall. When he confirmed his identity, I told him that we had heard about him. He merely smiled and clambered down over more rocks on the steep trail down. I love running into people like this. How inspiring!
Most of the hikers on the trail were fairly young, the majority in their twenties. I hope they all use Sonny as a role model as they age into their senior years.
We took the Cholla Trail down on the other side making the round trip around 3 miles. Now I am ready to go back to more of this desert urban hiking.
There was a shop in town that sold red dirt shirts. It looked just like the colors of the sandstone and this red dirt was used to dye this clothing. I loved the deep, rich color and immediately thought of the blue sky and then the turquoise jewelry that mimics this blue so beautifully.
