Photo of the Day: Escudilla Mountain - My New Favorite Place in Arizona?

Camera: Canon 5D | Lens: EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Setting: f/4, 1/160th sec, ISO 800

When I spent a short - and yet somehow long - semester in a certain scrupulous private college in Virginia a long, long time ago, I met some great people who'd never left their corner of the U.S. of A. before.

Many of my classmates and dormmates couldn't even pick out Arizona on a map. That's not a criticism, but a fact. I recall an especially cute little brunette thing from North Carolina with bright brown eyes and a smile that hooked me for a short while. Rest assured good reader, she turned me down for a simple date more than once - can't bring those west coast long hair types back to mama, you know. But when I first met her - oh, this is pure gold, PURE GOLD - she said to me, "Yer from Arizona? Is that where ya'll git 'round on camels 'n stuff?"

I CRAP YOU NOT.

Arizona has it all, and I'm really trying to mute my pride for my homeland here. All apologies if it's not working. Stick with me, though.

Just some four hours from my concrete driveway lined with an ocotillo, barrel cactus, and granite boulders is this very scene outside of Hannagan Meadow, Arizona. Aspen, ponderosa pine, grass, and a beautiful, if rack-less, elk. Escudilla Mountain, Arizona's third tallest peak at 10,912 feet, is just up the road. If I could escape to this place just once a year, my life would be beyond whole. Pretty blonde wife, heart-meltingly cute daughter, and opportunities to travel to places like this and shoot pictures. That's already more than I deserve.

And for my sake, I'm sure fortunate that Brooke knew the difference between a camel and a Jeep. That's how we get around out here. Camel. Puh-leeze.