Hi All. I know this may seem strange to most of you because it seems strange to me that there are times I thank God for earthquakes and volcanos.

This morning long before the sun rose I was on horseback at one of my favorite places in the mountains in the southern part of the county I live in. I was headed towards the top to see the sunrise, as this is one place to be able to see it in all of its glory. The sun rose in its normal manner. It turned the darken sky to a very light blue then too red, then orange and then to gold.

It was then that I saw the grass that is normally green this time of the year was white with a heavy coating of frost on it. The little puddles of water were frozen with a thin layer of ice. As I rode in the quiet of the morning with the exception of a noisy Blue jay here and there I looked around the place I was in. I saw it as a land that had to have been tortured by many small earthquakes, or maybe 3 or 4 very large ones, or maybe hundreds of large quakes.

I saw what use to be a lake bottom all flat and smooth. Now it was shale tuned upwards at almost a 90-degree angle. I wonder how many earthquakes it took to cause that? Did it happen all at once, or did it take many quakes to make it what it is now?

The horse I was riding suddenly stopped. I looked around to see what made him stop the way he did. As I looked up the ridge from where I was at I saw a coyote coming down towards the trail I was on. About this time the horse started walking again as he sensed the coyote was not a danger to him. I thought about that for a bit. Would that coyote be here if it weren’t for the security the mountains afforded him?

When I topped the ridge I stopped my horse and looked towards the west to see the Pinnacles. Knowing how they were born and how they came to where they are I thought that if wasn’t for a volcano they would not have been born, and if wasn’t for plate movement that causes earthquakes they wouldn’t be here. I looked down the ridge I was on. It was very steep. Almost cliff like. I wondered how much force it took to make it like that. How much of it was caused by uplift and how much was caused by erosion.

My horse started walking again as if to tell me it was time to start down as it was getting close to lunchtime. As we came off the ridge I looked down into the Panoche Valley. I could see the Panoche road and the rocks that had to be cut in order for the road to be built. Most of the rock is serpentine, but there is some basalt in the area. I look towards the south where the hot springs are and I thought about how nice it would be to take dip in them, but then I thought about having to get out them in the cold. I’ll take that dip some other time.

As we (the horse and I) came to a small canyon the horse suddenly stops, and then backs up snorting loudly as he does. I have to urge him forward at a fast pace, as I don’t like the smell of sulfur either. It comes from a spring about 80 yards down the canyon. I wondered where its sources is and how long it has it flowed.

I have to look around me and see all of this beauty knowing fully well that this would not be here were it not for earthquakes and volcanos. While it is true that earthquakes and volcanos destroy and kill, but they also renew and create. I thank God for them, but only once in awhile. I Love All That Is Around Me…Don in creepy town.