9/21/10 Full moon rise at the rim of Bryce Canyon. The bowl of light above us glows deep blue to purple to white on the moon’s east and gentle yellow on the west as it chases the disappearing sun. No clouds, just moon and sky and light. Below us Hoodoo rock formations shine with a luminous orange, gold and apricot. Even after a long day of hiking the rim of the canyon, it is hard to step away from these formations. Their red sandstone layers, capped by white/gray dolomite, have been carved over thousands of years by constant plucking from freeze-thaw weathering and erosion leaving a landscape of pillars, fins, and carved plateau faces, a gapping rift into the layers of sedimentary rock which make up the Colorado Plateau. Standing here at 8,000 ft, on top of the world, one can see the plateau lands behind us, open, tilted and reaching into the prairie distance, and before us the wondrous work of water and ice, wind and rain, uplift and sedimentation. At this one brief moment in time we are gifted, standing in front of this vast sculptured land.
Our trip has taken us through the black basalt and magma domes of the Pacific Northwest, around the southern edge of the arid, gray/tan Great Basin (thank you Death Valley) and now to the erosion/sedimentation/uplift land forms of the Colorado Plateau. The bottom third of the plateau is exposed in the cut at the Grand Canyon, the middle third is seen at Zion Canyon, and here we stand at Bryce Canyon, above the top third, marveling as the full moon illuminates the works of millions of years of geological forces. The ravens that glide on the updrafts of the canyon seem not to notice. The bristlecone pines with their twisted, almost dead limbs, living on the windward, dry point of the canyon rim, seem not to notice. Even some human visitors, with their screeching vehicle stops and photo grabs, seem not to notice.
The land forms are magical. Their colors and shapes play with the mind and soul and invite one to walk deeper down into their world, be surrounded by carved fins of rock, knobby pillars, orange and white erosion skirts, and constant change.
People of all languages and ages stop here, walk the rim trail, embrace what they can, and then move back from the edge. Picnic and camping areas are nestled well away from the canyon rim, in places of human time and dimension. From the point of the plateau one sees for 200 miles to the south, over a vast series of plateaus. At places the repetitive plateaus look like the heads of so many teenaged boys from the 50’s with their flat top hair cuts!
Time and dimension exists on so many scales. As humans it is almost impossible to fathom the forces and time that have brought us to our place and time. One can only be open and listen to the land. We were amused today when we read a quote from Will Durant: ‘Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.’ How true that seems as one watches the night come on the high plateau.
Our trip has taken us through the black basalt and magma domes of the Pacific Northwest, around the southern edge of the arid, gray/tan Great Basin (thank you Death Valley) and now to the erosion/sedimentation/uplift land forms of the Colorado Plateau. The bottom third of the plateau is exposed in the cut at the Grand Canyon, the middle third is seen at Zion Canyon, and here we stand at Bryce Canyon, above the top third, marveling as the full moon illuminates the works of millions of years of geological forces. The ravens that glide on the updrafts of the canyon seem not to notice. The bristlecone pines with their twisted, almost dead limbs, living on the windward, dry point of the canyon rim, seem not to notice. Even some human visitors, with their screeching vehicle stops and photo grabs, seem not to notice.
The land forms are magical. Their colors and shapes play with the mind and soul and invite one to walk deeper down into their world, be surrounded by carved fins of rock, knobby pillars, orange and white erosion skirts, and constant change.
People of all languages and ages stop here, walk the rim trail, embrace what they can, and then move back from the edge. Picnic and camping areas are nestled well away from the canyon rim, in places of human time and dimension. From the point of the plateau one sees for 200 miles to the south, over a vast series of plateaus. At places the repetitive plateaus look like the heads of so many teenaged boys from the 50’s with their flat top hair cuts!
Time and dimension exists on so many scales. As humans it is almost impossible to fathom the forces and time that have brought us to our place and time. One can only be open and listen to the land. We were amused today when we read a quote from Will Durant: ‘Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.’ How true that seems as one watches the night come on the high plateau.
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