Jean Zimmerman

Tag: Sedona

  • It might seem counterintuitive, yes, or even disingenuous:

    to talk about a 2024 resolution to be less annoying, less grandiose, less showoffy, less of a know it all, and to do it in a blog that showcases me, me, me. I know. It is true. And yet, hiking the Fay Canyon trail this morning I can’t help but ponder my resolve, how I might achieve…

  • Plants have names.

    Even those plants most people would walk right by and have no idea what to call them. In the desert, maybe, especially. It helps if you’re lucky enough to be with someone who knows most of the names. Like my brother. He seems to be acquainted with everything we pass this morning on this quiet…

  • Jay day on Dead Man’s Pass

    and I have the trail mainly to myself. The other day trippers, it seems, are off to The Birthing Cave or The Subway for selfies, apparently taking their cue from some meme about the five formations you must see when you visit Sedona. They don’t know that Dead Man’s Pass happens to be the most…

  • Same old same old

    wonders close to home. Yes, when your sometime home lies at the mouth of Boynton Canyon in Sedona, and snow dusts the ancient red rocks, of course everything is wondrous. But when I worked at the Grand Concourse in the Bronx last year, I thought is was pretty marvelous, too. Look, see, absorb. Yes, the…

  • Alligator junipers don’t bite.

    Stout, ancient ones mob this trail to the back of Boynton Canyon, Sedona’s most magical spot. Some are mammoth, four hundred years old or more, their rough hides entwining with the silvery smooth underclothes. I want to live! Juniperus deppeana has a tendency to splay into multiple trunks, the fusion making it hard for dendrologists…

  • So much beauty everywhere

    but nothing compares with the dusk skies of red rock Arizona.  See how a prickly pear glows, somehow, from within? Their spines reflect the natural light, then the flowers say goodnight. I always feel that given the strictures of growing here, the drought, mainly, and the intensity of the sun’s rays, plants have to really…