"DESERT SPINE" - Utah

Somewhere in Utah, after hours behind the wheel—Colorado in the rearview, California still miles ahead—I pulled off the road and found this. A single dead tree, stripped down by time and weather, standing defiant in a sea of dust and red rock. The sun hit it just right. It didn’t feel sad or forgotten—it felt earned. Like it had been through everything, and just kept being. That’s what the desert does: it doesn’t ask you to bloom, just to endure.