Angels Landing

Swallowing my pride, (I have a healthy fear of heights) I crawled on my belly to the edge of the abyss, and took this picture holding the camera at arm's length looking down from the top of Angels Landing into Zion Canyon in late 1982. It is a 1500 foor sheer drop to the Virgin River below. See the speck of a car on the road? It is a bit of a scramble to get up there, holding onto chains anchored in the rock on the steepest spots, with vertigo inducing drop offs on either side, not for the faint of heart. But a wonderful view, not to mention the awe inspiring angels who descend from the dazzling sky above to greet visitors. Angels, virgins, Zion... oh yeah, I forgot, this is Mormon country. Speaking of which, if you enjoyed reading Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild", don't miss his "Under the Banner of Heaven"... a cautionary tale.

Slickrock Works of Art

Again in April 2008, but this time a couple thousand miles farther west... three travelling fools made a pilgrimage back to Havasupai and Zion, two of the simply most splendid places on Earth. The abundance of slickrock turns minor miracles like wildflowers and pinecones into works of art, to be left undisturbed. Leave only footprints, take only photographs...
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Passing time breaks and wears stones back to pebbles then to grains of sand, this little pocket of pebbles in an ever so slight depression in the slickrock looked like a broken heart to my untrained eye...
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And even the most mundane of articles dropped, as it were, on the rock face become objects of beauty...
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Hang On For Dear Life

As mentioned below concerning the wildflowers growing out of cracks in an old stone wall, life springs up in the most surprising places ; lyrics from a timeless song come to mind :
"Wildflower seed on the sand and wind
May the four winds blow you home again"
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Out in Zion National Park last Spring in a place we ended up naming "Endless Canyon" for want of better, this glistening pine tree was growing out of a minuscule crevice in what was otherwise a near vertical rock face hundreds of feet high, and seemed to be thriving there... a natural bonsai, trunk pressed up tight against the slickrock, hanging on for dear life.
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Given the uncertainty and fear that seem to be dominant in the news these days; foreclosures and unemployment breaking records, banks failing, automakers realizing that in fact their business plans are light years away from reality, entire countries like Iceland on the verge of economic revolt, it is no surprise that alot of us are hanging on for dear life. Buckle your seat belts, there may be more bumpy weather ahead. Maybe Obama will be able to motivate us all out of the doldrums, I sure hope his energy will go a long way at any rate, but I find myself wondering more and more recently whether it isn't high time for a huge re-alignment of the entire philosophical structure of our so-called civilisation (which by many measures really isn't so civilized)? How much bigger can this cliff-face pine tree get before it will find itself in need of more water than the tiny crevice it lives in can supply it even after the heaviest of downpours? How far can the root system manage to creep into solid rock before it can creep no further? Can a tree that stops growing for want of water and root space continue to survive? Is this not a reasonable analogy for the current plight of the human race?
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To continue quoting from the same song as above :
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"God save the child that rings that bell
It may have one good ring, baby, you can't tell
One watch by night, one watch by day
If you get confused listen to the music play
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Roll away, the dew..."
(Franklin's Tower... Grateful Dead)