various1

None of these images fit into a specific hike but I like them for what they are--visions you might see during any of the wanderings on which you may find yourself on out there. Just a set of general ramblings and scattered thoughts.

I ask questions--questions like why is this rock way out here on this plain, far away from the buffs and canyon walls? How did it become shaped like it is and has it ever been used for shelter by another being passing through? Over the millions of years, how do these things find a place? What was it like here ten thousand years ago or 200 million years ago? What will happen in the next millenniums?

It is often shocking to the senses just what can be around the next bend, over the next ridge or deep behind the next canyon wall. Never have I wandered around in the desert without being surprised or in awe of how things work and how they can lie patiently hidden. No matter how plain the landscape seems, there is without fail something of utter importance waiting.

Who was here before us? How did they live and what did they believe? I am always stopped in my tracks by such records whether they be fossils or petroglyphs. I viewed a couple series of petroglyphs deep in the Escalante canyon system. At one site they soared far above the present day bench. The high-up art looked much older and with a different style than the lower, “newer” art that must still have been a thousand years old. The older images which were too high to photograph well were of sheep like these are but with fatter bodies, smaller heads and smaller horns. They were very faded and dim. This must have been the magic food supply for these ancient ones. There were other depictions of lizards, snakes and possibly rain. I long for a huge tablet that would tell of how they lived, played and survived in such a vast wilderness but must be content to try and reach them in thought.

There are newer dwelling obviously built by skilled hands, set in place with good notched axe work, buildings that have lasted a good long time. I carefully inspected the vigilant craftsmanship in this little log house. It had a good wooden floor and a nice little room arrangement. Who built it? Where did they come from and what did they intend to achieve? These were no blunderers or passers by. They had a purpose that would take a good long time.

In the end I believe more answers come at sunset and on into the starry night where the meaning of shape and volume are measured in the colors and patterns of the atmosphere and the distances are finally measured billions of light years instead of miles. We can only know what we are able to discover in ourselves, and wandering the deserts or any wilderness for that matter, is the way I have found, a way that brings some sense of being, a way that pulls perspective into this enigmatic vast place we call the universe.