Some Enchanted Evening

Perhaps this isn't the enchantment of Frank Sinatra crooning to a crescent moon after a Hawaiian sunset, but for the desert this is just as romantic. The yellow sagebrush against the black lava beds here at Lava Bed's National Monument in Northern California replace the Hawaiian beaches. The wind replaces Sinatra for the melody, and the approaching storm adds a touch of sultry to this desert atmosphere. Today's scene is one that ought to be in pictures.

The Picture: All around me the smell of sagebrush pricks at my nose. The yellow headed bushes poke up everywhere from black basalt rivers. Scrub trees reach their twisted arms across the dusty ground, and where their drying images intersect, dimpled rocks like sponges suck them in.

The clouds on the horizon are low, marching like valiant infantry across the line of the sun. Deep in the sky a white whip slashes their path into ribbons. The smell of a coming storm rushes past my face and I head for the van. Like the ending scene from a Western, the red tail-lights of the car in front disappear over the hill and the sun's slow rising pink folds move upward in the sky like trailing credits.