Sunday, November 29, 2009

Banners of God


The Grand Canyon encapsulates what American legends are made of--road trips, the Wild West, wanderlust. When I first visited it along with two friends in the summer of 2008, we were at the tail end of a cross-country road trip and we squeezed in a visit to country's most renowned national park before I had to drop off my companions at the Phoenix airport. Little did we know, the attraction of the Grand Canyon was more vast than we had thought. But, we had to make the best of it with what little time we had. I'm eager to go back again, this article--Walking Into the Earth's Heart, has wet my appetite.
Below us, sweeping brown plateaus bulge as if they were soft upholstery. There are cliffs of blue, pink, orange, mauve, and deep purple bands of rock — the banners of God, as an early explorer said. True enough, the stark minerality of the desert always seems to rouse the inner mystic.
The Grand Canyon, September 1st 2008:

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