Originally shared on Instagram on November 28, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
I’ve hiked and photographed in every national park in the continental United States. The only ones I’m still missing are up in Alaska—so far I’ve only made it to Denali—but this obsession with our parks started back in the late 2000s, and it’s been a driving force in my life ever since.
There’s nothing quite like the famous giants—Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon—but even the quieter, less visited parks leave their mark. Places like Badlands in South Dakota or Great Basin out in Nevada… they’re all unique if you slow down long enough to really listen. Every park, no matter how busy or remote, has its own story carved into the landscape. And when you sit with it—quietly, intentionally—you start to feel the history, the time, the presence of everything that has come before you.
This photograph comes from one of those quieter parks: Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson. It’s a place where the desert stretches out in every direction and these enormous, ancient saguaros stand like guardians of the landscape. On this trip, I spent the day hiking among them, walking through canyons and ridges, studying the petroglyphs that have survived centuries of sun and wind. By the time I climbed the big hill for sunset, the light had settled into that warm desert gold that only seems to happen out West.
I waited for the sun to fall behind the mountains, took my photographs, and then—like so many of my adventures—hiked back down in the dark. Just me, the desert air cooling fast, and the silhouettes of these giant cactus standing silent all around me. It was one of those evenings that stays with you long after you leave.
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