5.12.2011: Fay - LR. Part 2: Faces

Once I unloaded the bike, I headed for the trail head.  I contemplated doing the Cedar Falls Trail but that involved dropping down maybe a half mile into the canyon which would mean a very strenuous hike back up.   With all the rain during the past month, the falls would have been very nice but strenuous I did not need just then.  The Bear Cave Trail it was.  Completely by accident, a theme emerged on this hike as I began to see faces in the rock everywhere.  The very curious thing is that in the photo below,  I took this before I noticed my first face.  I took this picture focusing more on the orange fungi and rock formations.  It was only later when I uploaded the picture that I noticed it fit into my theme with its scrunched face.

 

No face here.  Just a very interesting root popping up out of the ground in the trail.

The profiles were obvious to me in this one but I still hadn't settled into a theme of faces yet. 

 

Again, the eyes staring at me were obvious, but the idea of looking for faces had not emerged as a theme.

I came to an area that was a cul-de-sac of sorts, blocked by high walls of rocks.  It seemed a good place to sit and soak in the area.  Mountains, rocks, large boulders always feel very sacred to me filled with an incredible amount of energy.  For me, inanimate objects they are not.  I looked up and saw an interesting crack in the rock face about twenty feet above me on the opposite end of where I was sitting.  I focused in on the crack to take a picture and as I looked at the image on my camera's screen after I took it, I was startled to see a small skull-like face.  Looking up, I could barely detect it but there it was in the screen.  After that, I began to look for faces in earnest.  Interestingly, when I went to upload that picture for the post, try as I might, I could no longer make out the skull-face I first saw.  I did not include it. 

Still sitting in the same spot, the photo below with the profile of an old woman (or man?) looking down in reflective thought really caught my eye.  I am very curious if the image I see is obvious to others.

Still taken from the same sitting spot.  This face is only about a foot wide.

 

No face in this one (at least not that I see).  I just like the composition of the leaves, debris and the white soil. Feels ancient, though, of course, the leaves can't be that old.

The remaining faces were found walking around through the high rocks.  The one below is about 10 feet across.

 

A profile.

Another face that is very reflective and seems very old and wise.  The green seems to add to that quality.  I almost did not take this one as the face did not seem distinctive enough.  But, it has become one of my favorites. 

I left back to the cabins feeling very honored to have had been invited in to that space.


I guess one might see a face with a very long and odd nose but I liked the idea of the tree flexing its wimpy bicep.

 

I literally stepped over/on this as did thousands of others, which is why it looks like it does.  This is a rock on the trail that has been smoothed down by the constant stepping action of hikers.  I liked the pattern that it made, especially with the pine needles.

A fitting last photo of the day to honor my small outing.