The Land Of Hoodoos

On the drive into Bryce Canyon the terrain looked much like Zion, but upon approaching the rim a scene not of this world was there before our eyes. Bright red rock formations stood against time like giant centurions in a field of powdered stone. The color alone seemed too vibrant or complex to be real.  We stood speechless as if time was frozen by the frigged air. The contrast of these beautiful red rocks against fresh snow and clear blue skies seemed surreal. Lauren as an artist commented on the landscape as a palette, while I was questioning my reality, wondering if I had eaten any odd mushrooms or been slipped a   “roofie colada”.  Perhaps  I would wake up in a valley wearing only a cactus hat and a pair of socks.

Standing upon the edge of  Bryce Canyon’s rim the world below was something from Science Fiction. Later we were told by a geologist that N.A.S.A used this surrounding area to train for operations and design of Mars Rovers. The better part of a day hiking every trail in the valley, each turn offered another even more unlikely scene, as if we were standing inside of a Salvador Dali painting ;lacking melting clocks, and elephants with spindly legs . As the sun set over the horizon the reds shifted to darker hues until the nights darkness prevailed. This alien land now offered an even more alien night sky, revealing entire constellations I had never seen.

Every night the temperature dipped into the negatives, yet this landscape was so attractive  the cold wind seemed a fare price to pay or in some way a right of passage. Upon the rim and valley grew Bristlecone Pines twisted, distorted, with only the smallest tufts of green almost petrified; a barely living fossil from an age long past. These trees have been recorded as being over 4000 years old. My first impression of this landscape was wrong, the hoodoos were not  the centurions standing watch over time and creation; it was these twisted and mangled trees. These trees rooted in rock stood watch as hoodoos were born from the cliff face aged and in death  transformed into red sand. As I placed my hand upon the hardened rough trunk of this living time machine I began to imagine. Many years ago as the suns light set upon the earths surface one of these trees was soaking up energy which at that very moment shone upon Jesus as he taught His disciples, or Buddha as he meditated upon life. It was here that I decided to start this blog. I know it is not much, but it is my “not much”. If these post encourages one person, causes anyone to laugh,  then that is enough.  Our life may be but a speck, but it is our speck, our chance, let us not waste it.

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