My September 2023 Photo of the Month is LM788, taken in the Laguna Mountains on a late afternoon hike.
LM788 Background
This image came from a Sierra Club Photo Section outing put on my friend and colleague, Alexander S. Kunz. My primary motivator for attending was to test my fitness after losing some weight and spending a lot of time walking and on the exercise bike.
While I wasn’t as fast up Garnet Peak as I wanted, I did see some progress.
Another reason I wanted to visit was because of one tree. Landscape photographers are like that. We have individual trees. This is one of them for me.
In 2013, the Chariot Fire swept through the Eastern edge of Laguna Crest and wiped out much of the second growth pine that didn’t perish in the 2003 Cedar Fire. There are still areas of ghost forest, which doesn’t include the oaks in the area being ravaged by the Gold Spotted Oak Borer.
But there is this tree, a single sentinel, and a survivor. What makes the tree interesting is that it was very much imperiled. All of the lower limbs were burnt in the fire, but the trunk survived and the top of the tree is still evergreen.
So this is the first stop on any hike up Garnet Peak, and I hope this peak persists for a very long time. And I also hope another fire doesn’t come along and do what the Chariot Fire couldn’t.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the image.
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T.M. Schultze is a San Diego-based photographer, traveller, and writer. He writes, photographs, and draws things of the outdoors that have inspired humans for thousands of years. He co-authored the Photographer’s Guide to Joshua Tree Park which can be purchased here.
Your tree was accompanied by some great clouds!
That was it for the clouds too, as they evaporated before sunset on the peak.
Love the sky – too bad they didn’t last until sunset.