Zion's High Points

This warning sign was at the end of the Narrows. Its too early in the season to venture up into the canyon. When the water exceeds 140 cubic feet per second, it is too dangerous.

Zion has some really special places. Many of them are well known, like Angel's Landing, Observaton Point, and the three Emerald Pools.

www.youtube.com/user/brawny03

Taste of Zion and Sights in Zion are a couple videos I've shot so far of these hikes.

Fortunately on my days off, I can eat a good breakfast in the employee dining room, take a bottle of water and light pack, and hike to these really great views.

I always recommend an early start. Its cooler, less crowded, and
you have the entire day to enjoy it.
Also, you can avoid the afternoon thunderstorms, although rare, can occur in late summer.

Why Does It Match?

Hiking up to Scout Lookout in Zion National Park, I noticed a hand print in cement. It was small, perhaps a child's? Wait! It matches mine.

I'm not into cement paths.
But, its accessible. We the employees here are told not to use the term handicap accessible. Just Accessible.

What's happening to us, as a people. I heard a lady on the cement path at Temple of Sinawava say "Its so much nicer this year. Last year this trail was all Dirt!"

Walking along in flip flops, munching apples, cameras and IPods in tow, down cement paths, back to the shuttle buses that run every 15 minutes, we all get a chance to see extraordinary views of cliffs, rivers and valleys that must be felt, loved and above all, preserved.

I wonder if life has become too easy. The things we cherish the most are the things we struggle to win, nearly loose, but at last regain. Perhaps our paths have become too generic, too certain.

That hand print matched mine.
Does it reflect a universal desire to leave one's mark on the earth?
Or, an opportunist just taking advantage of wet cement?
Was it the trail gods warning me not to become lazy by choosing too obvious a path?

Zion National Park

Another season, another seasonal job. An artist once said, "if you're not living life on the edge you're taking up too much space." That's how I feel right now, on the edge, counting days, hoping the Home Feeling returns.

But, tomorrow, my first day off since driving 2100 miles to get here, I'll truly be on the edge: a day hike up to Angel's Landing and some cliffs with edges to spare.

Its amazing all the people who actually live and work in the park, yet don't hike it.
I hope to video my adventures and post them on YouTube.

Fun In the Woods

Having fun in a secret place, spending the day creating something new, and sharing it with friends is one of life's greatest joys.

Going Home

After a summer at Yellowstone, and time with the family, I am heading home. This whole seasonal adventure was much more intense than I had ever expected: in friendships, experiences, emotions. Not that everyone who does this could experience the same.

They say its all in the attitude and
what one brings to the table.

I think that must be true.

We Ponder

We ponder not whether to wander....but where.

I am working in Yellowstone this summer. The trails are marvelous, but work keeps getting in the way. Seems like there is just not enough time to commit to the finer views, the distances to cover, that primitive release that comes with a long time in the back country.

So, I'm pondering a long hike. The mountains all around here merit serious attention. Or perhaps a base camp by a river. Or get back on the CDT. Humm

We ponder.

A Race With Yourself

The landscape by its patient resting there, teaches me that all good remains with him that waiteth, and that I shall sooner overtake the dawn by remaining here, than by hurrying over the hills of the west.--H.D. T

This is much like a favorite quote I found in a trail register on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2000. "In the end you find, no one wins, and the race was only with yourself.

So, take the path of your own choosing, and don't be dismayed if no one leads, or follows.--Unknown

It seems there is so much impatience, and looking back over life, didn't everything go so fast. In the end, how much of it will matter.

A New Job

I have decided, in spite of all the dreary economic warnings, to quit my real job and start a seasonal lifestyle. This summer I shall work in Yellowstone National Park.

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste in life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow."---H.D. Thoreau

One season at a time, one adventure, one love, one goal: enjoy each to its fullest without haste or forward wishes.

Pass an Invisible Boundary

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary"---H. D. Thoreau

I'm not sure which part of this quote intrigues me most: the success unexpected, or the putting of some things behind, or of passing an invisible boundary. But, I do know this, it all comes down to one thing: moving forward confidently to a life one has imagined. Without confidence, or a vision, there can be no direction.

My Greatest Skill

Thoreau said, "My greatest skill has been to want but little."
This is profound.
When we chalk up our lives, we look at all our accomplishments: play an instrument, cook fantastic meals, sing gorgeous songs, build wonderful structures, teach school, write books.
We think of doctors, lawyers, nurses and politicians. Investors, painters, web designers.

But, Thoreau felt his skill of minimalism, his satisfaction with voluntary simplicity, to be his greatest. No doubt his carbon footprint hardly registered at all.
Profound.