Photography, Travel, Life Musings
Reflections While Hiking the Dillon Falls Trail
A response to the SNAPSHOTS “Reflections” challenge
A mat of moldering pine needles and early-fall leaves absorbed both the sounds of our feet on the trail and the rush of the river. But the swell of water meandering over rocks and around bends continued on as a background resonance — like the hum of the universe. Rivers are like that. They seem never to cease their journey through space and time.
In stretches along the Dillon Falls Trail, near Bend, Oregon, the river tumbles in a precipitous free fall, plummeting to the next rung along the ladder of pools.
And just a little further along, the river spreads her wings wide and turns glassy and dreamy. You can almost imagine drifting aimlessly, trailing a finger through the reflection of the sky.
And then she dives underground, to that place inhabited by roots and bugs and porous lava rock, which is the foundation of this part of the world. Those stretches are dominated by nodding Tule Grasses and towering aspen and pines.
Often, she changes course entirely, perhaps because a long-ago tree might have fallen across the shallows, right where the boulder cradles a tiny eddy of a whirlpool. And, soon, the whole bend began to change its crook. The elbow of the river twisted and the river sprite now reaches out her hand to another body of water.
They do seem like such sentinels of time. The cast of sky across their surface offers the illusion of solidity. Also movement. Movement within solidity. What does it even mean?
And yet this is the nature of the universe. Movement within solidity. Illusion within reality. A dampened hush of leaves absorbing the river’s melodic rhyme. A mirrored puddle reflecting an ancient pine.
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).
You might also enjoy:
If you’re interested in keeping up with my poems, photos and musings, you might consider subscribing to my stories.
While I do normally post my stories with free “friends” links on social media, if you enjoy reading on medium, you can help the many talented writers here by joining. It helps to support the arts and to keep us writing!
And, because I’ve had a few people asking lately, if you’re ever interested in purchasing a photo, just leave me a note.
Story and photos ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.
You might also enjoy some of the other “reflections” pieces by such talented artists as Ian Hanson, Kris Cochran, pockett dessert, Erik Smith, Dennett, Penny Grubb, Christopher Lovelace @ChristopherLovelace, Inge E. Knudsen, Sandra B, K. Barrett, Charlie Cole, Gina Pacelli Jillian Amatt, B.R. Shenoy and others, who have participated in this SNAPSHOTS challenge.