As much of my life is necessarily repetitious (driving, working, eating, sleeping etc., etc.), doing more of it doesn't automatically mean I'll enjoy it more. So over the past several years, I have attempted to shift my focus to the moments that break this law.
Hiking is one of them. Besides simplifying my life, hiking is what brings everything back to base zero and re-sets the meter. When Chris first mentioned Havasu as a hiking destination, I readily agreed; after all, this is but prelude to the Outer Mountain Loop.
Since hiking in nature is automatically a pleasure, hiking companions strengthen the experience. I always enjoy hiking with my father, brother, and Brian. I haven't hiked with Dave since I was a teenager; it was my first time to hike with Jackson, Andria, and Mason.
Also for this trip, I wanted to try to bring more of my everyday life with me. I read a quote somewhere that going to the back country shouldn't be roughing it - it should be smoothing it.
I quickly learned that it is more practical in theory. While planning my food rations, I wanted to cook some simple meals that I would cook in my own kitchen.
The first meal turned out great - couscous with sun dried tomatoes and dried herbs in pita bread. It was delicious and executed to near perfection. The second meal didn't turn out all. I hiked 10 miles with 6 fresh eggs in my backpack and cooled them in the river not thirty feet from our camp site with the intention of making egg salad sandwiches in the morning. The next morning, Jackson somehow managed to break all six eggs in about 10 seconds.
What follows are pictures and quotations, with one exception, provided by Mr. John Muir, with my observations.
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."
The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM. These are the most pristine waters I have ever visited. 81 feet deep, 61 degrees in temperature, they are also the most brisk waters I have ever visited.
"Wander here a whole summer, if you can. Thousands of God's wild blessings will search you and soak as if you were a sponge, and the big days will go by uncounted."
The Tepees Area of the Painted Desert.
"Above, the bad lands stretch on either hand. This is the region of the Painted Desert, for the marls and soft rocks of which the hills are composed are of many colors - chocolate, red, vermillion, pink, buff, and gray; and the naked hills are carved in fanstastic forms. - John Wesley Powell, The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons (1875)
The Painted Desert is a marvellously isolated and desolate area. Its beauty is underscored by the petrified remains of the forests that once anchored these lands.
The bad lands show the process of nature's change. Layers of sandstone, clay, siltstone, and hematite highlight the colorful landscape.
"No matter how far you have wandered hither to, or how many famous gorges and valleys you have seen, this one, the Grand Canyon...will seem as novel to you, as unearthly in the color and grandeur and quantity of its architecture, as if you had found it after death, on some other star; so incomparably lovely and grand and supreme is it above all the other canons in our fire molded, earthquake shaken, rain washed, wave washed, river and glacier sculptured world."
This was my first trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Putting the visual perspective into words is near impossible; pictures reveal about a tenth of what the eye may capture.
"Deserts are charming to those who know how to see them."
My favorite places to hike - forests and deserts - are on opposite ends of the ecological spectrum. While the beauty of a forest is self-evident, it takes a different perspective to enjoy the beauty of a desert.
Time appears to slow down in the desert; life is more fragile and its residents are tougher.
"Every excursion I have made in all my rambling life has been fruitful and delightful from the smallest indefinite saunter an hour or two in length to the noblest summer's flight with steadyaim like a crusader bound for the Holy Land or a bird to its northern home following the flight of the seasons."
The desert goes through its own evolution. Canyons shift and rocks fall. This change disturbs shelters that took generations to form and creates new shelters for several more generations. The boulders that fall from the cliffs are not diminutive; many are the size of the kitchen in our house.
Every human, no matter what his wild disposition, would find his own way, if only he looked for it....Somewhere, if he wandered freely enough, he would enter the flow and begin to take his strength from the fountains."
Havasu Falls, 2 miles from the town of Supai, AZ and 10 miles from the trailhead. The falls drop 120 feet and create its own wind system to keep the swimming area cool on the hottest of days.
