Our second stop was at a place called Page near Lake Powell. Robert had booked us a tour (I believe one cannot go to these spaces without a tour guide) and we were taken by surprize with the beauty of these lands. It so happened that there was a rain storm at Page, as we stood in queue to get into a 14 seater van. Unclear about the final outcome we just tagged along our guide. Fearless leader meandered along the raods to bring us to the slot canyon which had no affects of the rain storm, and we had a fantastic visit.
This was once we left the Hwy 98 and drove on vast lands which were just sand..... Our guide kept talking about the story, from her point of perspective. She did not claim to be a researcher, but simply a member of the Navajo community and shared her personal knowledge about life and earth in these surroundings. We arrived at these rock formations and got off the van.
The view of the 60 or 70 feet tall rock before we entered the gap between the formation.
I hope the visual journey will spell out stories that I cannot capture in words.
We reached there around 2:30PM. It seems that the tour at noon gets booked within seconds of its opening. That is because at noon the sun light - the beam of light enters into this gap with full intensity. It must be an experience to be in here at that hour of the day.
You may come upon many pictures of us, as our guide kept having each of the fourteen members pose for a picture at special photogenic spots in the slot canyon!
Looking towards and against the light.
The wind was blowing very hard, I got a sand particle in my eye and the faces of the rock looked sculptural even still. Robert and I kept making associations with the forms familiar to us and the play of light and dark on the wind and water carved rock was incredibly beautiful. Sharing so much yet sharing nothing.
The guide told us about flash flood that last for a few hours. It has become easy to predict with the new technologies and they have had to cancel tours when there has been such events. Though they flash floods are like flashes, they don't last very long.
Close to the end of the gap between the rocks.
Looking back at the path we had been on for the last hour or so!
Walking around the outside of the slot canyon to get back to our van.
On the left side one can see the entrance of the gap where we walked in to the slot canyon.
We learned that the native people, elders and priests do ceremonies in this slot canyon on specific days of the year. The place holds energy which is difficult to express in words. Some say it feels spiritual. I wont be able to sum it up in a word.
To me this experience brought me another example of the power of nature. The place has seen so many particles of sand, water, wind may be fire; so many people ... I wonder what it thinks of us?
No comments:
Post a Comment