NAVAJO TIME MACHINES

We are visiting Arches National Park in southern Utah. Today we are hiking, again. We’ve gone a couple of miles and at this moment, we are standing alone, in front of “Navajo Arch”. It is a geological wonder. A huge archway hollowed out in a giant wall of red sandstone. After taking our obligatory pictures, I put my hand on Lauries arm and gently say, stop. Listen. Silence. I don’t mean quiet. I mean complete silence. There isn’t even the sound or touch of a breeze. You can’t even hear yourself breath. It is completely still. Then you notice it. The sound of a propeller driven plane, far in the distance, is moving across the sky towards the horizon. Because it is distant, the sound of the engine is just a lazy hum that slowly disappears as it moves farther and farther away, until it fades and then it is gone. I am taken back to my childhood at this moment. When very young, I would get up early on summer mornings and go outside before my family woke. I suppose there were very few people stirring in my neighborhood for if there were, they were very quiet. I would stand in my backyard, the sun warm on my face and I would notice the sound of a plane in the distance. I would look up to see if I could find it but usually I couldn’t. The world was so quiet with the exception of that hum as the plane made it’s way across the sky towards the horizon and then it slowly faded away. At this moment in Utah I am far away from New Jersey, but I could be a child again there, and I am.

EARTHTONES AND OPEN SKIES

Traveling up Rt. 12 through southern Utah. The car is cruising at about 75 but the earth tone scenery scrolls slowly. For hours we see barely a car; a house or town; hundreds of miles of nothing……….except a rich blue sky that makes you realize how big the earth is, and beauty for as far as your eyes can see.

SCHOOLS IN AND THE PARKS CHANGE

Schools in. When you’re on a year journey to try and visit all the national parks, that statement is music to my ears. It means gone are the crowds, the traffic, the full parking lots, the crowded trails, and full campgrounds. Since we are traveling with the flexibility that comes with not making reservations, it means that we can now pull into national parks and get a campsite. We can even get our choice of campsite. It means we don’t have to deal with loud groups disturbing the quiet on the trails. It means in general that we can enjoy more of nature and less of crowds.

We notice that the demographics of the park visitors has also changed. Gone are the families of 5 and 6. Yeah for school! What’s left now are retiree’s and foreign visitors with some weekenders thrown in. There is an entire subculture of American retiree’s that RV full time. Some are avid hikers and outdoors people and some are campground mushrooms who basically just hang out in the campgrounds. Some take advantage of everything the park has to offer. Others, have televisions on the outside of their “rig” with a satellite dish on top and a pop out bar on side as well. No kidding. They bring patio furniture and have outdoor lights strung. It’s really quite amazing. A true home away from home.

And then we have the foreign visitors. On a recent hike through Zion I would estimate that the number of foreign visitors on the trail outnumbered “English speaking” (I’m assuming Americans) by about 80% to 20%. I’m basing this strictly on the languages we heard being spoken. How great is this. We might have the best national park system in the world. I know it was the first. I love to see these foreigners experiencing some of the best America has to offer. Our national parks are flagships of the beauty of nature and we have a bunch of them. I think we’re up to 59 now. Probably about 50 of them are in the lower 48 with the rest scattered in Alaska and Hawaii. These visitors bring tons of photos and descriptions of their visits back to their countries. America is great! America is beautiful! It puts America in a very favorable light, especially at a time when that light might be a little dimmed in other parts of the world. They also bring in a lot of revenue during this slower time of the year and lord knows the parks need it, with them getting short changed in the budget and all. I’ve never had the good fortune to be able to spend time in the national parks during the fall and winter months before and it is really a great time to be here. We’re watching leaves turn color and fall along rivers in the desert. We’re sitting around a campfire not because we can burn wood even when it’s 110 degrees outside, but because we’re trying to stay warm. We’re stopping to have relaxed conversations with other hikers cause we haven’t seen anyone else for the past couple of hours on the trail. It’s a different world in the parks at this time of the year. I’m kinda glad that more people don’t realize this because it makes the experience so much better, but, that would be selfish. Take my word for it. It’s a good time to go. Do it, before schools out.