Summer’s heat has caused the desert to lose the color that clothed it during the spring months, and has reduced the landscape to something much more simple and bare. But even now, I realized during this hike, there is still a deeper beauty that is felt out here. I had to be listening for it, of course, especially when the view all around appears so bleak, but it’s there—just as strong and vibrant as ever.

The desert—especially in the summer—doesn’t shout it’s beauty the way waterfalls do when they spread their mist over ferns and cause rainbows to drift in the air, but I’ve come to appreciate its quiet nature. It’s given me the opportunity to look deeper—closer to the source—and discover beauty there. I hope that I can learn enough from these moments to be able to feel this same kind of thing wherever I go. Even in those greener places, I hope I don’t limit my view to those things on the surface, but that I still remember how to look just a little deeper.