Living Rocks

Great Brook Farm State Park, Massachusetts

Rocks, the first to come...
  Can I imagine how this must have looked some 10,000 years into the past,
   at the time when glaciers melted and rocks stayed ?

  Harsh, lifeless.

  And then lichens and mosses came,  
      the foremost,
    daringly animated creators of the new world.

  Harsh, buoyant.

    On these same rocks, no way I can miss them...  

Steep and Rocky

Beachcroft Trail, Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park

... each step is a reminder of the turbulent geological times...

   Granite rocks have seen it all in their long life...
   Born deep down in the Earth's crust, under extreme pressure... and, at some point,
       pushed onto the surface and scrapped to the basics by glaciers ...
   Their crystals are coloring the ridges they helped create...
   ... attracting lichens, mosses, leafy minors... and finally, trees... looking for these slight cracks
       which, with time, become soil-filled pools of life...

... into the clouds...

In Search of Old-Growth Forest

Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, Massachusetts

Recently, I looked-up for possible leftovers of Old-Growth Forests. Old-Growth Forest, by definition, is a forest that has not been disturbed by humans for at least 150 years. Not many are left behind farming hysteria of the pre 20th century. All the trees that lived on farmable lands had to be killed. Only those on steep, rocky parcels have survived. And this is where the patches of Old-Growth Forests might be found... One of the places on the list is This Place. The Ranger confirms: Yes, they do exist Here. And shows the trails to follow... Following the trails... rocky ground... trees, colors, streams... the Forest resonates... Any Old-Growth? I do not know... But I will remember...