That moment on a familiar trail when everything around you starts to look alike (in a good way)

What’s above me and what’s under my feet have begun to look the same.

I crane my neck to see two giant clouds melting together, gray and white, light beaming through the space where they meet.

Their pattern echoes the patches of limestone embedded in the trail.

We take the gorgeous Tree Springs Trail from 8,500 feet through spruce and fir to an overlook of rugged rock.

Then we head north on the Crest Trail, about 1,000 feet lower in elevation and several miles from where we hiked the past two weeks.

The tang of evergreen needles fills my nostrils, mixed with a hint of dampness, the packed trail below redolent of mud from a monsoon storm now forgotten. As we climb, the evergreens get taller and fatter, and copses of aspen appear.

I knew as soon as I got out here, I’d want to go all the way to the upper tram terminal, a more than 7-mile roundtrip hike with 2,000 feet elevation gain. I also knew we’d started too late, it was too hot and too humid.

I make it about a mile up the Crest Trail – let’s just see how far I can get! – before assenting to the conditions, to my thigh and ankle muscles, and heading back.

On the return, we take a side trail to revisit the overlook, seeking a promontory that was occupied by lunchers earlier. The trail’s so thick with Gambel oak that I hold my hiking poles in front of my face to keep branches at bay.

My husband tells me later that as I crashed through the undergrowth, a small white butterfly with black-pepper spots danced circles behind me.

Some things are graceful, even when others are not.

Hike length: 6 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Traffic: moderate

Wildlife spotted or heard: Abert’s squirrel darting across the Crest Highway, woodpecker, butterflies, blue dragonflies, dove, chickadee, coyotes (heard in the distance), horny toad