The big leaf maples out back in their autumn glory. They tower overhead, ten times my height or more. Something in the light today after heavy rains holds my gaze. The one on the left is half rotted on the back of its trunk. Within a few years, it’ll be a nurse log.
Autumn morning at a bend of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley, with the sunlit wall of El Capitan (Tu-tok-a-nu'-la) in the background; Yosemite National Park, California; October 2023.