Utah Juniper
My fondness for this tree began long before I visited the redrock desert around Moab, Utah. Having lived in California until I was 26 years old, eighteen summer vacations were spent in Yosemite National Park. As a child, I hiked with my mom, always walking behind her on a trail, a practice that would continue throughout her lifetime. Each year we made a pilgrimage to the top of Sentinel Dome in Yosemite where my best-loved tree, a Jeffrey Pine, defied the elements. This iconic tree was wind-swept and stood there for ages. Sadly, because of drought, the tree perished in 1976. I moved to Utah with my husband and two-year-old little girl in the Fall of 1976. Years flew by and three more children arrived. We had never ventured south to the redrock desert of Utah until I was asked to chaperone my daughter's 4th grade class on a field trip to Arches National Park. "This is Coyote's country--a landscape of the imagination, where nothing is at it appears. The buttes, mesas, and re
