This Is The End, I Promise
WE HAVE BEEN OUT OF TOWN for two weeks. After a week in Salt Lake City we headed off for another week to see the natural beauty of the Southwest.
We visited six National Parks: Arches, Canyonland, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. We also hit some State Parks and other spots that carry lesser titles: Antelope canyon, Four Corners Monument and Dead Horse Canyon. All of that in one week. No wonder I feel like I’ve been “Rode hard and put away wet.”
Between the two of us – me and my wife, the lovely and photographically adept, Dawn – we have about 5000 shots to go through. I imagine we will delete a majority of them as being fuzzy, redundant, or photo-bombed by Japanese tourists all carrying “selfie sticks” or kids rampaging on a sugar high and overbites..
I imagine that I will use some of our pictures in this blog from time to time. The good ones are pretty and fill up the space at the top nicely. If they aren’t relevant to the words written below – so what. Some days the words aren’t all that relevant to anything either.
One thing that I can do that is totally relevant is to say to you all – “Make every effort to visit these National Parks and other sites. They are wonderful gifts. I don’t have the power to adequately describe what you will see there. The words fail me. The words don’t exist to do it.
Of all of the places we visited I put two of them in a class by themselves: Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and Antelope Canyon on Navaho territory outside of Page, Arizona.
This is not to denigrate the other sights. They all are unique in their own way and unforgettable. The Grand Canyon is called “Grand” for a reason.
While travel like ours is wonderful, it is also tough on the body – especially on an old and creaky body like mine. I could have hiked miles and miles, but I didn’t. Maybe twenty years ago I would have wanted to and been able to hike the trails that promised more unseen grandeur. Today = it ain’t gonna happen, Jack! Even though, I still walked more than I have in ten years. My feet are sore, my thighs are yelping and my face is s nice shade of sun generated pink.
I urge you to visit the natural treasures of this nation. You will not regret it and you will have memories that will last a lifetime.
OK – that’s enough. I’ve been there. I’ve done it and I do have the T-shirt to prove it.
Now I’m going to go to bed for a week. There is a pile of dirty laundry that can wait until I wake up.
Until next time…
Down the Hall on Your Left 