Wicked Trees - Chiricahua National Monument
by KJ Swan
Title
Wicked Trees - Chiricahua National Monument
Artist
KJ Swan
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Beware the wicked trees of Chiricahua where boulders balance atop rhyolite pinnacles. The heat keeps this land in the southern Arizona desert hard and dry, until summer. Monsoons drench and flood the desert in summer, thunder crashes and dark volcanic ash erodes to expose columns of hardened rhyolitic tuffs.
Men were hunted in these mountains in the days of Apache warriors Cochise and Geronimo. The cries of war once echoed off these rock pinnacles where shrubs and trees labor to survive and skilled Apaches alluded capture. It’s quiet when I look up and notice the knarly, twisted branches above.
(Two leafless trees frame a vibrant blue sky filled with fluffy clouds. The dark silhouettes of the branches create a striking contrast.)
Uploaded
December 2nd, 2025
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