Canyon Gratitude

Yesterday we hiked a six-mile round-trip trail deep into Canyonlands National Park—the Chesler Park trail. It was a fairly moderate hike, although it did involve some scrambling over slickrock. We saw a handful of people on the trail, but mostly, it was just the two of us in an enormous wild landscape of rock formations, juniper, sagebrush, and sky.

There’s a lot of time for reflection when you’re hiking for four hours, with nothing but the sound of your own footsteps, and the occasional call of a raven.

At first, I kept saying aloud, “Look at that beautiful rock!” “That view is incredible!” “Can you believe how big the sky is?” And then we just fell silent, walking, breathing, observing.

The beauty is so stunning, and so vast, that it brought me to tears. At one point, I found myself chanting quietly, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” a prayer to the miracle has allowed me to be here, embodied, walking in this beauty—for this, I am immeasurably grateful.