Playing with a Photograph of Lichen – A Meditative Process

Playing with Lichen

r Playing with Lichen on Red Rock © 2014 Bo Mackison

“…there’s a silent voice in the wilderness that we hear only when no one else is around. When you go far, far beyond, out across the netherlands of the Known, the din of human static slowly fades away, over and out.” ~ Rob Schultheis

Red rock and lichen.

A variety of lichen, but truly, there are at least 946 kinds of lichen in Arizona/Utah combined, and so there will be no identification of lichen in this post. But how glorious they are! Such simple fungi, but in glorious shapes and textures and forms.

Yes. This is a “fun” photo – one that I played with for an hour or so. Not so much to get the perfect photo or abstract, but more to observe the creation of pattern and color. It becomes a meditative process.

I’m not sure what it is about the processing part of photography, but I can get lost in the play of it. Explore the combinations of colors. Make the crevices a blue-gray while keeping the brilliant rock of southern Utah its deep orange-red. Add purple shadows, highlight the yellows, pull out the turquoises.

“We need the tonic of wildness… At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. ~ Henry David Thoreau in Walden

Hiking while taking dozens of photographs of rock and pattern was itself a meditative process.

I was off trail, but following close enough to the Colorado River so orientation was never a problem. Most of the rock was slickrock, wind-polished and swept bare, but there were pockets of lichen and the tiniest of wildflowers.

Crevices would suddenly appear, when I was anticipating solid rock, and there was the challenge to either step across, climb down and back up, or follow the edge until it descended to level rock. But I spent most of my time sitting and staring at the space.

The rock is endless. And the land is silent, only an occasional whisper of wind or the swooping hawk in search of prey. The land immense enough to roam, explore, study, and then realize that an hour stretches to four without notice.

The call of wilderness — silent and yet singing in a crescendo, lifting my spirit. Heaven on earth.

A Lesson in Preparation – Rescue on the Toadstool Trail

Trailhead to Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Trailhead to Toadstool Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

Afternoon on Day Two of my unexpected travel adventure.
Rangers at Big Water recommend the Toadstool Trail on my drive to Kanab,
a mile and a half trek through balanced rocks and hoodoos.

“Go past the first toadstool,” one ranger suggests.
“The toadstool garden is quite the thing to see.”
It’s only a few miles down the road. Three pm. Great timing.

Info on Toodstool Trail

All the Details © 2014 Bo Mackison

A line from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument brochure catches my fancy:
“offers…extraordinary insight into what sustains, maintains, and explains our world.”

Sustains. Maintains. Explains.

Trailhead. I check my pack. Standard Sonoran Desert gear works in the high desert, too.
Sign in at the registration stand.
I’m a dozen yards down the level trail when I reconsider,
and go back for my walking stick and extra water.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

“No service” on my cell phone.
I can’t phone in my hiking plans to my trail buddy, but I’m on a popular trail. No worries.

The trail follows a sandy wash for the first half mile,
then weaves around sculptured slick rock, flowers bloom in abundance.
Formations of striped red and white make a stunning backdrop.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

The First Toadstool © 2014 Bo Mackison

Hikers pass me on their return, marveling at the hoodoos and balanced rocks.
“The toadstools,” they thrill. “They really look like toadstools.”

I reach the first toadstool, a beauty standing in its solitude.
A couple reports the toadstool garden is just beyond the white escarpment,
exactly how the ranger described it.

How’s the trail? I ask.
A little scrambly up a few rocks; the garden’s worth the climb.
I’m good to go, glad I brought my hiking stick.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Cairns mark the trail, winds through narrow channels, crosses benches of rock.
The garden is a sight to behold, hard to photograph due to the shadows, but the scenery to the west is striking.
After hiking the trail a couple of hours, appreciative of the solitude and sights, it’s time to get back on the road.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Formations in Rock © 2014 Bo Mackison

It is solitude that gives us the opportunity to recover a sense of internal order, to develop new self-confidence for the day to come, and to experience the spiritual strength it takes for a person, if necessary, to face tomorrow alone.
~ Joan Chittister

Following the trail, I haven’t seen other hikers since the gardens,
and high in the chalky rock, hiking on the slick rock,
I realize I’ve passed these rock formations before, I’m walking in a circle.

Retracing my steps, I start again at the last cairn.
Again I end up traveling in a wide circle, half hidden in rocky crevices,
slip sliding. The trail disappears a third time.
For the first time on a solo hike, I am lost in a tangle of rock hoodoos.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National MonumentLife is not meant to be a series of resolutions designed to make us something we’re not. It’s meant to be a series of explorations which, in the end, finally bring us home to ourselves. ~ Joan Chittister

I have time, late afternoon. Again I carefully trace the trail.
I am missing a turn or a step, a switch back. Still, it eludes me.
I am frightened, but at the same time, I am calm.

Deep breaths and I check my pack. Enough water and food, but I don’t have a light.
My mind gets busy searching for options. I pull out my whistle.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National MonumentHaving the opportunity to be alone is an important dimension of learning to function alone. Having had the time to define our personal positions in life we can then go on with the confidence and certainty it takes to know what we think — and then claim it. ~ Joan Chittister

A plan? Sleep under a ledge for some protection and warmth?
Lean against rocks and stay awake?
It’s only one night, there will be hikers tomorrow.

I’ve never spent the night unprepared in the wilderness,
is this the night?

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

On the Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

And then, across a small canyon, two hikers climb along on a bench, high above me.
I whistle three sharp blows. They look up.
Are you on the trail, I ask. They nod.

They have a height advantage, they consider the rocks, the paths.
They point, guide me through narrow ways, around boulders, over a shallow crevice
I can jump using my stick for balance.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

This is life’s greatest moment, when the soul unfolds capacities which reach beyond earth’s boundaries. ~ Isaac Hecker

And then I scramble up a rocky wall and I am on the trail.
We walk towards the road. At the first toadstool, they ask me
to take their photo – they are father and son. Their annual visit.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Sego Lilies © 2014 Bo Mackison

It is easy to bounce through life — going here, trying that, tasting this. What is difficult is trying to figure out what we are supposed to do with what we find, or learn from where we go what will make life even richer. For ourselves, of course. But for the rest of the world, as well. ~ Joan Chittister

The trail is in the wash, they go ahead.
I think to myself, I was lost, and now I’m found.

Sustains. Maintains. Explains.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Getting stuck in life — refusing to experiment; being afraid to try something new; becoming cemented in what is, rather than excited by what could be — is the difference between living and being alive. ~ Joan Chittister

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
~ Henry Miller

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

When we know who we are, when we have confronted the spirits within ourselves against which we vie for dominance, we find ourselves more inclined to be so much kinder to everyone else. ~ Joan Chittister

~~~~~

Most of the quotations are from The Art of Life, Monastic Wisdom for Every Day by Joan Chittister

Graffiti, Dam, and Dinosaurs — All in a Day’s Travel

Colorado River, Glen Canyon Dam Overlook

Colorado River, Glen Canyon Dam Overlook © 2014 Bo Mackison

Day two of bonus travel.  Page, Arizona.
I take a detour on a scenic view road,
discover the Glen Canyon Dam Overlook.

Glen Canyon Dam Overlook

Logan and Sam, Volunteers Removing Graffiti  © 2014 Bo Mackison

On my climb down the red rock trail,
I meet three college kids hard at work,
scrub brushes in hand, cleaning graffiti from the red rock.

They tell me their story while they work.
They’re honor students from Southern Utah University
visiting Glen Canyon – hiking, exploring, and volunteering.

Glen Canyon Dam Overlook

Sammi and Graffiti Removal at Glen Canyon © 2014 Bo Mackison

Logan from St. George, Sammi from Tontopah, Nevada
and Sam from Salt Lake City, all intent on cleaning the hot rock.
Logan laughs as he says, “We’re the nerdy kids, not the cool kids.”

I disagree. I think they’re the cool kids.

Glen Canyon Dam Overlook

Jayci and Alyssa with Park Ranger Cynthia © 2014 Bo Mackison

Hiking on the red rock towards the Colorado River,
I meet more volunteers removing streaks of
unsightly graffiti from the red rock.

Glen Canyon Dam Overlook

Ranger Cynthia Sequanna Demonstrating Graffiti Removal to Damaris

Jayci from Cedar City, Alyssa from St. George,
and Damaris from Salt lake City work with Park Ranger Cynthia Sequanna.
A big thanks to these students. And to the Park Ranger, too.

I’ve discovered positive energy on these red rocks, for sure.

Revived, I get back on the road,
Kanab Utah 73 miles.
Carl Hayden Visitor Center 1 mile.

Glen Canyon Dam at Carl Hayden Visitor Center

Glen Canyon Dam © 2014 Bo Mackison

Elevation 3827 feet.
Waters of the Colorado River are backed up 185 miles
by the Glen Canyon Dam to create Lake Powell.

During prolonged droughts, released water
provides for the desert cities to the south.
Full in 1980, now the lake fluctuates near the 50% mark.

I leave Arizona, enter Utah.
Its motto – “Life Elevated.”
The rock is layered in more colors than I can imagine.

Not only reds and oranges, there’s shades of gray,
white, green, blue, yellow.
Hard to drive, there’s too much to see!

BLM Dinosaur Visitor Center

Big Water Dinosaur ©2014 Bo Mackison

Big Water, Utah.
Rocks like chimneys, puffy clouds like smoke.

Big Water Visitor Center. Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument.
Tiny building in the big desert, but inside are huge dinosaur specimens,
bone not plastic,  from digs in the immediate area.

Merle Graffam and His Dinosaur Find

Flyer about Dinosaur Discover Merle Graffam © 2014 Bo Mackison

Adding another  bonus to my bonus travel,
I have the pleasure of meeting local paleontology expert Merle Graffam.

Discoverer of the first Therizinosaurus found in the Western Hemisphere,
an entirely new dinosaur species, now scientifically known as Nothronychus Graffami.

All because he decided he needed more exercise
and thought the Utah sands would be an ideal  outdoor gym.
And that claw he saw sticking out of the gray sand – yes indeed,
Graffam’s very own dinosaur.

His autograph is on the flyer, it even says “to Bo”
but Bo was so stunned by a celebrity sighting
she forgot she had her camera slung over her shoulder!

A Few Views from Zion National Park

Red Rock and Rainbow

Red Rock and Rainbow © 2010 Bo Mackison

After our visit to Cedar Break National Monument, we traveled a couple of hours south to Zion National Park. We saw a rainbow as a passing storm system heading away from us.

Hiking in Zion

Hiking in Zion © 2010 Bo Mackison

With the elevations in Zion ranging from 3,600 to over 8,700 feet, the park is home to many habitat communities.  There are species from the Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range, and the Mojave Desert, and these all blend to create a place for more than 900 species of plants, from riparian (river) plants to desert plants.

Sunset Glow, Incoming Storm

Sunset Glow © 2010 Bo Mackison

Zion National Park is on the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The many layers of rock have been pushed upward and tilted to form a geological feature called Escalante, or the Grand Staircase. This amazing line of cliffs stretches from Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon. One of the large steps stretches from Bryce Canyon, the bottom step, to Zion, the top step. Another step rises from Zion, the bottom step, to the Grand Canyon, the top of the step.

Cliff Tree

Cliff Tree © 2010 Bo Mackison

In 2009, President Obama declared much of Zion as a Natural Wilderness Area. According to Congressional Guidelines, a wilderness area is, in part, defined as:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Red Rocks in Zion

 Zion

Zion Scape © 2010 Bo Mackison

A few more photographs of Zion National Park before we leave Utah and head into northern Arizona.

Zion NP

Layers Of Zion Rock © 2010 Bo Mackison

Zion has eight layers of sandstone, some as old as two-hundred-million years. The entire park is covered with red rock, deep winding canyons, desert-scapes, mesas, and buttes making this area in Southern Utah a spectacular vision.

Zion Desert Scape II

Zion Desert Scape © 2010 Bo Mackison

Our weather was overcast, sometimes rainy, sometimes the clouds opened just enough to let a bit of blue peek through, but since we were only in the park one night and one day, we had to enjoy the scenery with the weather as it was.

Zion Red Rock

Summit Trees © 2010 Bo Mackison

I love this line of trees on the ledge of the rocks.

Checkerboard at Zion

Checkerboard Mesa © 2010 Bo Mackison

Checkerboard Mesa is a mass of orange and brown slickrock. The huge rock towers more than 900 feet above the Zion-Mt Carmel Highway. It gets its name because it has the appearance of a huge checkerboard with vertical and horizontal fissures carved into the rock from top to bottom.

Next: Glen Canyon Dam and NRA.