In 2011 Jaclyn and I had the opportunity to visit the Hancock Field Station in John Day, Oregon. This was a weekend for OMSI employees and a plus-one to stay at one of the museum’s three outdoor schools and attend lectures and tutorials facilitated by the camp counselors. This was in the high desert of Eastern Oregon.
Not having been raised in or near a desert, I knew very little about deserts (other than I keep spelling them ‘dessert’). I know it’s silly, but I always just assumed they were dry and dead, a place where living organisms hurried through, on their way to something that wasn’t dry and dead. But our short, educational nature hike through the John Day Fossil Beds, to the Painted Hills changed all that.
Our guide showed us how the desert is actually teaming with life. He showed us how to pull water out of the ground, out of the air, even. He showed us what plants we could use as antibiotics and numbing agents. He showed us the smart way to hunt for desert creatures (identify a frequent path by the critters tracks, and set a trap). I ate ants. They tasted like citrus. Ants, it turns out, are remarkably clean – as most colony insects are meticulous about picking their brethren clean of parasites that could potentially compromise a colony.
Ever since our educational nature walk, I have not ever looked at a desert the same way again.
It is not often we get to discover something we’ve always believed is one thing, is not actually that thing at all, but something completely different and spectacular. What if we were to carry this idea beyond the dry highlands of Eastern Oregon, and apply it to anything else we might encounter?
Take, for example, the seemingly desolate expanse of these winter-shorn cornfields of Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. Indeed, even a quick tinker with the exposure of these photographs reveals layers and textures I certainly didn’t notice while I was out trespassing in someone’s cornfield, trying to get these shots level.
Not everything is spectacular, I know that. Maybe Southern Minnesota is not exactly a draw for big tourism (probably the people who live there are just fine with that). But when we’re ready for it, or we’re looking for it, something spectacular can most certainly be found.
I can’t wait to head out for more rides through this area again and, even though I’m hoping to do less landscape photography, I’m looking forward to taking all the pictures along the way.
