Grand Monuments and Golden Arches

Hugging the Colorado river from Boulder towards Grand Junction, it is clear this country has never done anything by half. The Colorado River has etched, poked, forced, ravaged its way through forest and desert. Creating scapes of idyllic streams, raging canyons, desolate deserts, and towering plateaus. A mighty force, unrestrained and relentless. Stretching beyond time. An unyielding creator of the past, present and future.

In this semidesert land of pinyon pines, Utah junipers, Mormon’s tea, desert sage and the frustratingly all evasive Big Horn Sheep; geological wonders, mesas, monoliths, petrified dunes and sedimentary frescoes scream testament to infinite wonder and the transience of Starbucks, Walmart and ice vending machines. Clocking up miles, yards and breathtaking elevation gains in feet, tanking gallons, collecting rain by inches; it’s clear the only thing missing to, “Make America great again”, and thereby simplify the life of a tourist, would be a conversion to metric.

Flashing our annual National Parks card, with a license plate all the way from California, one could presume we plan to be here for as long as some of the ancient rock sculptures found in the Colorado National Monument and Arches National parks. Formed through movements of ice, water, extreme temperatures and salt movement over the ages, on a beratingly hot summer’s day, it’s hard to imagine the brutal force or the 100,000 million years of erosion bringing into existence this sculptured rock scenery. A landscape boasting towering spires, pinnacles and eroding phallical rock formations; a whispering breeze hugs canyon walls offering respite from the heat, while ancient towering Arches bridge the expanse of time and culture. Sheer walled canyons create cathedral acoustics, amplifying voices of intrigued tourists, rock scrambling children and thousands of shutter shots.

A hike to the Double O Arch after traversing miles of sandy trails seems less appealing at the end of the day on which hikes are kept short, hydration a priority and shade relished.  Better  a drive down the park road created by John Wesley Wolfe and his Great Depression partners. A road leading straight to the dynamic, ephemeral land formation of the Golden Arches for an ice cold Coke.