This is one photo where the experience of getting there outweighed the end result. We set out in the morning on a 3 mile roundtrip hike into the Grapevine Hills, north of the Chisos Basin valley in Big Bend. Our Falcon Guide rated the hike as easy, so I took my full camera backpack, tripod and two water bottles each for Sheryl and me.

The prize at the end of the hike is a rock formation called Balanced Rock, and photos I had seen of it made it a worthwhile effort. The hike was indeed easy, until the last half mile that was a 200 foot vertical ascent up steep boulders with few handholds and footholds. Fortunately, the trail was well marked, so we knew we were taking the right path, but this was anything but an easy hike. Just as we neared the top, our route took us past this lone Palo Blanco tree that had sprung up in the shelter of a massive stone wall. The tree's dense, deep green leaves contrasted with the stark white of the tree's trunk and the orange background of the stone. I must not be the only one who's thought so - when I returned home from the trip, I found a number of photos of this tree all taken from this one and only vantage point.

Canon EOS 5D, Tamron 28-105 f/2.8, SP Aspherical LD @ 35mm, 1/250 sec @ f/4.5, ISO equiv 200, Calumet 8000 Carbon Fiber Tripod, Gitzo G1276 Ballhead, Color Efex Pro