Gateway, Summer, 2019, FINAL

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10 <strong>Gateway</strong> to Canyon Country By Julia Beame
Mountain Morning Meditation I am camped in southwestern Utah with my husband and two kids, who are five and seven. I wake up as the first zinfandel blush of dawn filters through the curtains of our camp trailer. Being as quiet as I can, I place a kettle of water on the trailer’s stove to boil. When the water comes to a boil I pour it, along with some coffee grounds, into a French press, press it down, and pour the coffee into my favorite travel mug. After adding a littler creamer, I carry it and a folded picnic blanket outside and carefully, silently shut the camper door behind me. We found our wonderful little camp spot quite by accident. Or serendipity. Yesterday afternoon we left Cedar City, Utah, and drove west out of town along highway 14 and up and up onto the top of Cedar Mountain, where we began looking for a place where we could camp for the night. About an hour after leaving Cedar City we found a dirt road leading into pine trees that enticed us to take it. Afternoon matured into evening as we slowly bumped along the rutted dirt road. About 45 minutes later the road terminated at a place called Strawberry Point, which marks the southernmost end of the Virgin River Rim Trail. The Virgin River Rim Trail – l would later Google – is 45 miles long, spanning from Strawberry Point a good distance back down the mountain toward Cedar City. It’s a single track trail and most of it follows along the southern edge of the Markagunt Plateau. Its elevation is high enough to put it in the pine trees and it overlooks the backcountry of Zion National Park. The views, I discover as I leave the camper, are particularly stunning at dawn. I carry my coffee and picnic blanket down the trail until I find a secluded spot among a little semi-circle of pine trees just twenty feet from the edge of the ledge, with an unobstructed view of the Zion backcountry. It’s the absolute perfect spot for a morning meditation. I spread out my tiny square of blanket on top of a cushiony layer of pine needles and sit on it cross-legged looking out over Zion’s towers, buttes, pillars and canyons, still hazy blue in the dawn light. I take a long drink of coffee – dang that’s delicious! – and place the mug back on the blanket. I take a deep breath of mountain air that smells of pine www.<strong>Gateway</strong>toCanyonCountry.com 11
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