Guest Post: Desecration in the Desert

by Jim O'Donnell

Editor’s Note: The following essay and photographs are by Jim O’Donnell, a Taos-based journalist, author, and photographer.

I had expectations. That’s always my problem. Expectations. 

Two weeks ago, I woke at dawn on a mirror-still morning at Lake Powell. To the northeast, a rim of dank smoke lined a sky lit orange by the slanted rays of the sun collidi…