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Viewfinder - The ascent of a woman: Growing up in New Mexico allows a girl to be tough, adventurous - and completely feminine. I recently saw a part of myself in two sisters: Vivien McCullough, 4, (left) and Audrey McCullough, 2.

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Growing up in New Mexico allows a girl to be tough, adventurous - and completely feminine.

I recently saw a part of myself in two sisters: Vivien McCullough, 4, (left) and Audrey McCullough, 2.

They were on an afternoon adventure to the Navajo Nation with their grandfather, mom and dad. Family friends were shearing sheep, but that mesa-top tale is for another day.

The girls had dressed themselves, explained their mother, Anais Chakerian. They wore dress shoes because sandals were the only alternative. "Yes," I thought, remembering a cactus that punctured my flip-flops on a northwest New Mexico adventure at the same age, "buckled shoes with sturdy soles were a good choice."

Now 28, I chose to wear jeans and hiking shoes for this trek. After soaking in the girls' sense of discovery - in the sandstone crevices that trap rain, the baby sheep that were born the night before, the water that hid in an underground cave - I thought, "Silly me. I should have worn a dress."