November is one of the “brown” months for many landscapes of the Southwest.
Its a time of transition between the summer monsoons and the winter rainy season. The few desert plants that might’ve greened up from a good microburst have gone dormant again as their await their next quench.
While fall colors, and even green foliage, can still be found in the riparian zones along desert creeks, these are only found in isolated pockets.
And in many areas where deciduous trees live widespread through the forest, like where the high elevations host quaking aspen — or the Gambel oak in the foreground of this photo — their branches went bare weeks ago, with the spindly brown arms and weather-beaten trunks to bask in the late-autumn sun.
So while brown isn’t “traditionally” pretty, in the right light it reveals its splendor.
Early and late in the day, the horizontal illumination brings out the texture of rocks and tree bark and grasses blowing in the wind, painting warm tones across the exposed earth.
In the case of this scene from the Grand Canyon South Rim taken last November, the color palette isn’t just brown — how about those splashes of red! Or the great blue yonder overhead.
There’s always beauty to be found around us, sometimes we have to look in places we least expect it.
But anyway, that’s all I got for today’s rant….I mean Daily Dose!
Thanks for reading,
-Jake
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