The Southwest

The cold and wind put me in a Southwest mindset.These pictures were taken last summer.

At Bryce National Park a maze of forms seem like a giant's playground, but in fact the erosional forms, orange hoodoos, were formed by gullies. My favorite hike at Bryce is The Fairyland Loop. A sandy trail entices hikers down a scenic ridgeline to the bottom of Fairyland Canyon. I love the names of the places along the way: Boat mesa, a section of Campbell Canyon,Tower Bridge, the Chinese Wall, and the remains of Oastler’s castle. The colors seep into me.

From Bryce we drove Highway 12 to Capitol Reef. I love that drive with its hairpin turns. Water chiseled and sculptured the land.
In Capital Reef we hiked a path strewn with lava balls.
I bought an autographed copy of Carol Brown’sCanyon Sketchbook.
She writes, "I linger in the Utah canyons,
even on a cold day...with my back
against ancient petroglyphs I can see
a hundred miles into space
and millions of years
back into history..."

We drive to Moab— the road winds through a desolate moonscape.The Terra-cotta blanches and becomes ash gray and doesn't return to any color until we pass Hanksville. Later we'll see Entrada limestone, "a muddy sandstone, Slick Rock —fine-grained
sandstone that forms cliffs and narrow fins—the building blocks of Arches National Park."

Photos 1—8 Bryce, 9—11 Arches, 12-15 New Mexico

I am drawn again and again to visit the canyons, the desert and the quiet of the land.