Through the Dark

Faint glimmering twinkles of starlight poked through the clouds and accented the night sky against the black mountains on the horizon. The sounds of sand crunching and grinding softly beneath my boots seemed to thunder in my ears above the chirps of the crickets and the early morning calls of mockingbirds. I had gone to great lengths to silence my kit as much as possible, but nothing could be done about the sound of my footsteps for I was chasing the light and could not slow down.

Moving uphill now I check on the time: fourteen minutes to sunrise, and I notice the land slowly becoming visible below the charcoal mountains of the horizon. The newfound light is heralded by additional birds now singing. Towhees, Sparrows, and even the coarse squawks of Jays can be heard while the gray landscape begins to wake up. As pleasant as all this may be though, I am running out of time.

“Time to pick up the pace.” I softly mutter to my dog, Cody, as we walk faster towards my chosen spot on the ridge line.

It’s at least another half mile to my destination and I am almost out of time when Cody comes to an abrupt halt in the middle of the trail. Knowing better than to ignore his warnings I stop as well and listen while scanning the shadowy bushes around us. A moment passes and I begin to think it was nothing. Suddenly the still air is punctured by the snapping of a twig and the rustling of dead leaves to my right.

The best way to see something in the dark is to look at it indirectly so I focus my eyes off to the side and out of the shadows emerges a still gray silhouette with two yellow eyes reflecting starlight back at me. The narrow frame, bushy tail, and pointy ears gives away the mysterious creature’s identity: a healthy young coyote.

Cody begins to grumble with a series of low volume barks that barely escape his throat and I give him a gentle correction back with soft, “psst!” The coyote is betting on its camouflage as we remain silently staring at each other.

It takes a second for me to snap out of it and remember that I carry a camera. I slowly raise it and focus my lens. There isn’t much light to work with, so I slow down the shutter and pump up the ISO as I do my best impersonation of a statue. I don’t want to startle my subject and I’m surprised he’s waited around this long already. Everything’s ready now, just need to press the shutter and… my friend has already moved out of the frame. I frantically follow with the camera but all I can capture is the beast’s bushy tail disappearing behind the desert brooms and laurel sumacs.

“Oh well, time to move on.” Follows the sigh of frustration I let out and Cody nods back. We’ll need to step on it if I’m going to get to the ridge in time for the show, but that’s when I notice it.

At first, there’s just a gentle hint of purple mixing into the gray sky, but within seconds it brightens into lavender and is followed by a host of oranges and reds as the monochrome landscape transforms before my very eyes much like Oz did for Dororthy when she arrived. It’s a different world now and I can see the vibrant green that blankets the valley floor. I see that it’s dotted with little yellow, white, and red flowers waiting for the light of the morning sun to reach them so they can open and almost all at once all the sleeping creatures awakened as thr sounds of life exploded all around me.

The birds have now formed a symphony and all sorts have added their songs to the day’s new rise. Cliff swallows, killdeer, and a meadowlark add their songs to the performance while a redtail hawk’s screeching signals its readiness to meet the challenge of the hunt. Like an alarm, the abundance of sound signals that I am out of time so I stop trying to make for the ridge.

I have been defeated again by a beauty that waits for no one. But it’s okay! Even from where I stand the show is spectacular and I snap a few shots in between “ooh’s” and “ah’s”. I didn’t make it to the ridge to capture the perfect picture, but the rest of the world was waiting for me and if anything’s true it’s that you never know what you’ll see next out here.

“Let’s go, buddy.” I say to Cody without taking my eyes off the horizon.

The purples, reds, and oranges have now given way to gray cotton clouds adorning the otherwise blue sky. I carry on and make my way further up the mountain. Though I haven’t gotten a single photo of what I set out to get, I know it will be a great day and I am filled with a sense of satisfaction as I move through the cool loneliness of the refuge. I know I’ll still be able to get some good landscape shots once I get up higher but just then I hear my next distraction call for my attention: a white-tailed kite is hunting the grassy meadows just below me and I spot his distinct form slowly descending as if he is levitating instead of flying.

Yes, today will be a good day indeed!