Seeing Fall colors was hit or miss in Flagstaff and Sedona. A brief winter storm blew the leaves off the aspens, ending the chance for a return visit to my favorite trees up at Snowbowl. But I did see beautiful colors in town, like the tree pictured here. I spent time at the Flagstaff Arboretum and enjoyed taking in Fall through all the senses. The road was so rutted from the recent floods that I almost checked to see all my teeth were there after the jolting and bouncing during the two-mile drive. No wonder the road closes in November.
I saw a squirrel hard at work, bounding from tree to tree preparing stashes for Winter. A quarter mile later I saw a tarantula crossing a few feet in front of me. I stopped to let him (her?) pass. The tarantula had a definite agenda, walking over pine needles toward a rock with the same sense of purpose we do when running errands. I felt like a guest in someone else’s home, and it was fascinating to step back and see what was going on in a world outside my human frame of reference. The scent of mulch underneath the pine needles was different this year, almost overpowering with hints of citrus, maybe a result of the abundance of rain after an extreme drought. I plucked a juicy pine needles and munched on it as I walked, its sharp orange taste waking up my tongue. At the end of the trail I closed my eyes for a few paces, listening to the wind murmuring in the branches, telling its secrets in a language only trees understand.