Ever since my daughter Megan gave me a poster with the magnificent sandstone shapes of Arches National Park in Moab, UT, I have wanted to go there and experience the spirit of these great monoliths. Now I am here.
To see the park when the light was perfect for photos and tourists would be at a minimum, I arose at 5:30 am. I mounted the bike and quietly rolled it out of the motel yard before firing it up. The air was cool and fresh and I was glad I had put on a couple of extra layers. I drove through the Arches park entrance past “watch out for Big Horn sheep signs”. This is the first national park I have encountered that is open 24 hours a day every day.
The ride started with a nice “twisty” with no roadside barriers making one cautious in outside turns. The bike was running well and occasionally I added full power out of a turn to get the full performance out of the bike. Then the spectacle began.
All around me were gigantic shapes of rocks formed millions of years ago when a large sea dried up and water began its work to shape one these amazing rock forms. There were arches, monoliths, rocks balancing on other rocks, and towers. My gaze was captured and held by these giant wonders. Occasionally I had to include the road in my view so as to not get too distracted and drive off into the desert. I pulled over every chance I could to take pictures of the forms as the early morning sun painted the rocks in contrasting colors accenting their unique shapes and forms.
It was a very spiritual experience and I could see how Native Americans could consider some of these forms special in their belief systems. I felt at one with the environment and breathed in the fresh desert air constantly lifting my eyes to the wonder before me.
With no tourists in the park, I had no distraction from my viewing and wondering. I realized my time on earth was insignificant compared to the time it took for these rocks to form only to be worn away and replaced by another work of nature in the next million years.
