Digital-Desert : Mojave Desert >>> Route 66 <<<
From the Heartland to the Coast
Desert Gazette
True Facts, Legends & Lies
Desert Photos
by Walter Feller
THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN - The Mesa Trail

There is always a little wind on the mesa, a sliding current of cooler air going down the face of the mountain of its own momentum, but not to disturb the silence of great space. Passing the wide mouths of canons, one gets the effect of whatever is doing in them, openly or behind a screen of cloud, — thunder of falls, wind in the pine leaves, or rush and roar of rain. The rumor of tumult grows and dies in passing, as from open doors gaping on a village street, but does not impinge on the effect of solitariness. In quiet weather mesa days have no parallel for stillness, but the night silence breaks into certain mellow or poignant notes. Late afternoons the burrowing owls may be seen blinking at the doors of their hummocks with perhaps four or five elfish nestlings arow, and by twilight begin a soft whoo-oo-ing , rounder, sweeter, more incessant in mating time. It is not possible to disassociate the call of the burrowing owl from the late slant light of the mesa. If the fine vibrations which are the golden-violet glow of spring twilights were to tremble into sound, it would be just that mellow double note breaking along the blossom-tops. While the glow holds one sees the thistle-down flights and pouncings after prey, and on into the dark hears their soft pus-ssh! clearing out of the trail ahead. Maybe the pinpoint shriek of field mouse or kangaroo rat that pricks the wakeful pauses of the night is extorted by these mellow-voiced plunderers, though it is just as like to be the work of the red fox on his twenty-mile constitutional.

Page 5 of 14 > next
features - ecology: wildlife - plants - places - region map - map/sat - roads & trails - wilderness - video - aerial - 360 photos - old west - communities - books - lodging
route 66 - ghost towns - gold mines - parks & ... - joshua tree - death valley - mojave preserve - native culture - history - natural features - geology - glossary - comments
Wrightwood Cabins
Mountain Homes and Real Estate for Sale

Wrightwood California
A year-round mountain community
HighDesertRED.com
High Desert Real Estate Directory
--
Google
Search:
Keywords:
Check out our...
>> RECOMMENDED BOOK LISTS <<
Digital-Desert
Abraxas Engineering
privacy
Copyright ©Walter Feller. All rights reserved.
Respect U.S and international copyright statutes and our right to own and control our work
- DO NOT LINK TO THESE IMAGES FROM WEB PAGES, FORUMS OR BLOGS -
Desert Gazette