When I was a kid, we’d almost always vacation in Colorado – camping trips, generally planned to coincide with a full moon. One of the regular stops we’d made were fish hatcheries and I have a very specific memory of going to one that had huge cottonwood trees around the parking lot. (Maybe that’s when my love of cottonwoods got started?) I can also remember a particular smell inside the hatchery’s sheds; the way thousands of fishes swam toward our shadows, hoping for food; and how even on the hottest days it was cool and pleasant around the fish.

Going to the fish hatchery last month in Santa Rosa reminded me of those vacations.

Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.27.2022