Welcome! I am a contemplative thinker and photographer from Colorado. In this blog, you'll discover photographs that I've taken on my hiking and backpacking trips, mostly in the American West. I've paired these with my favorite inspirational and philosophical quotes - literary passages that emphasize the innate spirituality of the natural world. I hope you enjoy them!

If you'd like to purchase photo-quote greeting cards, please go to www.NaturePhoto-QuoteCards.com .


In the Spirit of Wildness,

Stephen Hatch
Fort Collins, Colorado

P.S. There's a label index at the bottom of the blog.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Who wouldn't be a mountaineer! Up here all the world's prizes seem nothing.


"July 26.  Ramble to the summit of Mount Hoffman, eleven thousand feet high, the highest point in life's journey my feet have yet touched.  And what glorious landscapes are about me, new plants, new animals, new crystals, and multitudes of new mountains far higher than Hoffman . . . , the pure blue bell-flower sky brooding them all, - a glory day of admission into a new realm of wonders as if Nature had wooingly whispered, 'Come higher' . . . In the midst of such beauty, pierced with its rays, one's body is all one tingling palate.  Who wouldn't be a mountaineer!  Up here all the world's prizes seem nothing."

John Muir, 1869

Photo: Mount Hoffman looms over May Lake, yellow pine pollen, and a Western White Pine cone; Yosemite National Park, CA; July 27, 2012.  An hour after shooting this photo, I climbed Mt. Hoffman.  What terrific vistas!

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