The planet’s grand arches

Moab, Utah

6 – 8 July

Elevation: 4,026 feet/1,227 meters

Weather: HOT! 103f/39c

When I was a kid I dreamed of Moab and the surrounding red rock landscape. It was the place of high desert wildness. It still is and yet development—hotels and fancy restaurants—are starting to push up around the ATVs, jeeps, darkly tanned climbers. No matter. On this last night, we are dusty, crusty, and exhausted.

We planned this trip because of the chance to get out into nature. We needed to escape the physical and intellectual confinements of Covid-19. Nature was and remains our sanctuary. We came to be in some of the planet’s mightiest of cathedrals, to be where the wisdom of the earth and the simplicity of the human race combine, stretching into her glory, coming to recognize that we are not even shadows in the history of this planet. We are mere passengers.

The great stone arches have been carved by wind. Just imagine how long the wind pushes up against these stones to slowly, slowly pull away mere particles of sand until these elegant spires are revealed. These arches span millennia and yet they look spritely, like they are in the midst of a grande jeté and will then glide across the desert landscape, dancing their way into the sheath of stars that twinkle for them every night.

People are here. Most wear masks and you can see the rugged styles that pervade a place like Moab. They are all buffs, pulled up from the neck, covering smugly and like this was the most normal thing to wear whilst hiking here. They still race around on their ATVs, scrambling over rocks and up the curves of aches for the best spot, wind torn and high, like all else.

We were in general agreement about the arches. We hiked Park Avenue, Delicate Arch, Windows, Double Arch, Ribbon Arch, and Landscape Arch. Delicate Arch was the mightiest, sat above a curved stadium of stone where the wind howled up and around as if the arch were her conductor. A black crow hovered just above us for a while until it found its own perch, so much better than ours. Landscaper Arch, we agreed, was the most moving, its great expanse pulled tight as if the stone was taught rope, holding the rest of the earth in place.

The kids blossomed here. They hiked and swam (the Colorado River where we found a local’s beach the favorite) and climbed and took photos and bragged to their friends and when we got back to camp today, we devoured sausages, sliced tomatoes and mozzarella. Now, I sit under the great expanse of stars, happy and sunburned, thinking that all of this may actually make sense.

Canyons & Crowns

Drive Day