Winter Gateway 2020

Bears Ears National Monument (Shash Jaa’ in Diné
bizaad – Navajo language) in southeastern Utah,
has an elevation of 9,058 feet. Shash Jaa’ is located
in San Juan County.
maybe a little frightening. It caws, circles twice and then
flies on. I’m uninteresting to this huge bird, which apparently
has other more important matters to attend to.
I stop further down canyon. Petroglyphs are carved
into the rust colored wall. Mysterious figures and images,
but a connection to the past, to the ancient people who
walked these canyons and built their homes of stone
perched up high.
People who likely had their own fears, anxieties, worries,
plans and daydreams, like me.
Time doesn’t exist here - until it does. The sun moves
west, and shadows grow, reaching eastward. I return to
the car the way I came.
The night sky fills with stars. The Milky Way cuts a
misty swath across the heavens. It is cool, the heat of day
gone. Silence seeps into my flesh, my blood, my being. It
collects in my soul, nourishing the heart that called me
to come here.
Paria Canyon and the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness
area offers hikes to spectacular formations – hoodoos,
slender, ghostly rocks that can reach several
stories high.
8 GATEWAY TO CANYON COUNTRY