#6155  Gnarled Tree near Sol Duc Hot Springs in Olympic National Park, Washington You know what they say about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. I beheld this hunchback tree along the trail deep in the rainforest. It was very much alive though struggling to regain its upward climb. It was not a futile gesture, for it has the understanding of all those around it, that it too, deserves its own space!
	#6406  The South Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho Deep clear water pools and tall canyon walls surround me. Age-old rocks stained by eons of time crumble silently around me. It saddens me as a traveler of time to be only a speck against the landscape of this mighty canyon.
	#6547  Chinese Canal and Broken Top Mountain near Bend, Oregon There’s a story about this stream and the Chinese who diverted it to use for their mining. Near Bachelor Mountain, my brother Stan and I in a rented van tasted life on the road. A movie crew filmed and we waved and left them our cloud of dust.
	#6650  Mesa Falls, Idaho It had been a cold winter’s day in Yellowstone and we had driven through a foot of newly fallen snow. We returned here to autumn with a pleasant surprise telling us that winter had not arrived yet. Even if we had viewed winter's cold, the beauty before us warmed the hearts of these two beleaguered travelers.
	#6841  Morning Campfire by the Salmon River near Redfish Lake, Idaho Getting up in the morning in the Sawtooths can be a sensory treat. My friends and I were to climb into the Whiteclouds. A breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes christened with coffee brought me out of slumber and into this world.
	#6995  Sinker Creek near Murphy, Idaho I was told that this creek on the Silver City stage road contained such plentiful gold that you could make sinkers to use in fishing. There were species of desert fish here. I found no gold or fish but the quietness necessary for a desert sojourn.
	#7100  Evening Glow on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona A brief glimpse of the setting sun illuminated against the canyon walls. A subtle beauty in a canyon of staggering dimensions. So vast that your thoughts are lost. Sometimes it takes such beauty and largeness in nature to take humans from their world into nature's realm.
	#7740  Trail Creek Road and the Lost River Range, Idaho On the way to Canada, we took this shortcut to see more of hidden Idaho. It started to rain, so we had lunch in the jeep thinking thoughts of more travel. Just as quickly as it had begun, the rain stopped, The perfume of sage accompanied the lyric voice of the meadowlark.
	#7757  Stream in Glacier Park, Montana Got to go and keep on going , there is no time for rest, for there is too much to see. And then a nearby stream calls your attention and you slow down to cool your feet and look down and are amazed by what's below your feet. So many colors and so much beauty. Now, what were you looking for and what was the rush all about?
	#7779  Mountain Goats, Glacier National Park, Montana People must stop and gawk, but I know they take it in stride in a mountain goat sort of way and continue on to the green meadow where the grizzly bear claws for ground squirrels. Mother and child grow tired of tourists. They know much more than we will ever know about living with the seasons. They go from this trail to a cliff face in the blink of an eye.
	#8066 Jump Creek in the Owyhees, Idaho This is one of the places in the Great Basin Desert that offers more than you asked for. It is more than just the green of the surrounding sagebrush. Near the end of the canyon surrounded by poison ivy echoes the sound of falling water.
	#8188  Capitol Reef, Utah The old jeep listed to one side as we continued up the narrow dried up stream bed that they call a wash. I didn't mind the heat, but the engine did. So I was very glad to get out and see what this is all about. It’s about what it takes to live and everything here is doing a good job. Thanks but no thanks to humans
	#8199  Capitol Reef, Utah This tree is a monument to the intensity of nature in perseverance. In larger sense, it's not perseverance that lets the tree thrive where others fail. It’s a genetic understanding. There exists an understatement of requirements and a short order for life's nutrients. We have so much to learn and so little time on this planet.
	#8238 Newspaper Rock at Canyonlands National Park, Utah "I think we’re lost, " I told my wife. "Doesn't look like anybody has ever been down this road before." "Oh, I wouldn’t say that," she said. And looking at the canyon walls, I read this story written in time.
	#8603  The Road to Leslie Gulch, Oregon You drive through mud puddles past thistle as high as your truck window and then this realty-defying road drops into the Owyhee Canyonlands which have become more fiction than fact. But it doesn’t matter much to the black bombardier beetle crossing the road what you believe. Those shapes and colors before you were created as much to surprise you as to make you pause and think. How did they get there?  How did we get here?
	#8676   Leslie Gulch, Oregon They say that all of this was laid down as volcanic tuft - thousands of feet deep. The colors tell you something extraordinary happened here. California bighorn watch and leave only footprints. Their presence is a reminder of the wildness and pristine beauty that await you here.
	#8722  Bighorn in Hells Canyon of the Snake River, Oregon A friend of mine grew up here and listened at night to the Snake River. She said she couldn’t go to sleep after it grew quiet once the dam stopped this great river. Now concrete walls divide the canyon, but she still returns to remember.
	#8783  Wildflowers on the South Fork of the Payette River, Idaho Sure, we can race around on this planet called earth thinking that the faster we travel, the easier it will be to face life. When all it takes is a brief detour to put us in our places and remind the unbelievers that life will always be here, with or without us.
	#9040  Salmon River near Sunbeam, Idaho A pleasant day in Stanley in January can be measured by the ice on the river No traffic noise - no exhausted air. Just you and the river. I think you get the picture I sure did.
	#9818   Orchids at the Boise Orchid Show Sometimes you must view the beauty around you up very close and smell the fragrance to understand that what is in our world of senses doesn’t always make sense. Maybe an orchid is here to broaden our view of what's out there. Behold the wonders created! Human technological gestures pale in comparison.