Merry Christmas Catcus Ed Style
Edward Abbey (from Wikipedia)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you from Ranger Roy! My wish for you this coming year rings true as the words of Arches champion, Edward Abbey:
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets’ towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you — beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.”
Edward Abbey – Desert Solitare
Don’t forget to vote for December’s park of the month on facebook!
What you shouldn’t miss in Arches National Park.
Arches is a National Park for good reason. This park like all the rest has it’s own scenic beauty and wonderment that draws crowds. Books, guides, family, friends and even rangers will tell you what you need to see or what you need to do in Arches National Park. Yet almost everyone fails to tell you that when you leave the city, the sunsets are better and the stars are brighter. Stop. Sit. Watch the sun paint colors and cast shadows on the Arch formations. Leave your tent or campfire. Look up. The starry host is worth a few shivers and a few winks of sleep. When is the last time you have seen a beautiful sunset or seen a shooting star?
A cloudless night
in the desert
is brighter than
a thousand days
in the city.
Listen to the
star’s symphony
as they compose
life’s greatest scene.
The dancing light
in the desert
colors the tan,
crimsons the clay.
Dusk’s artistry
varnishes the
cacophony
with one last prose
that is serene.
What is there to do in Arches National Park? *Hint* the allure is in the title.
Arches National Park. The reason you should go there is pretty self explanatory. Blog posts this month will highlight the arches you may just want to visit. Go figure! I will add a few off the beaten path and hidden gem items…. but it will be hard to look past the beauty that is: Arches.
Let’s begin with Delicate Arch; so famous it’s image graces Utah’s license plate. There are two view points, both with stunning views. One is right up close (longer hike) and one is from farther away (short stroll). Did you know: The Olympic torch run for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics began at Delicate Arch?
Depict
subject
perfect
Mimicked
No brush can so depict, subject too
delicate, too perfect, mimicked plate.
First non-arch sighting! Did you know that Balanced Rock had a companion rock till 1975? Paul Bunyan accidentally knocked it off with his ax while cutting trees in the La Sal Mountains. It was called “Chip off the old block.”
Distanced
Cadenced
Silenced
Balanced
Time has now been distanced, cadenced speech
will be awed and silenced, Balanced Rock.
photo courtesy of wikipedia
La Sal Mountains? Imagine a contrastingly perfect backdrop for these magnificent, red sandstone formations. Then stop imagining. The La Sal Mountains are better than your imagination. Imagine that! There are 12 peaks over 12,000 feet in this mountain range. La Sal must need a lot of shoes!
Blue
outdo
Hue
argue
La Sal mountains blue, outdo most
Other mountains hue, argue not.
photo courtesy of wikipedia
A 1.5 mile trail leads to Landscape Arch. The second longest arch in the world! Do you know the longest? Rangers advise you not to go near this arch. In 1991 a 70 foot chunk fell off. I doubt you could dodge a piece of rock the size of a school bus!
Escape
Undrape
Agape
Landscape
Leave the road and escape, undrape your
eyes, gaze upwards agape, landscape arch.
courtesy of wikipedia
I will leave you today with this final question. Delicate Arch was recently summitted by a rock climber. It caused a storm of controversy. Recreation. Should it be regulated?
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