A Fantasy Land without the fantasy

If I were to tell you of a land comprising of towering noble mountains, great open plains, vast immeasurable chasms, raging wild rivers, pristine white desserts, giant soaring pillars of rocks and great coloured waves of earth you would think I was speaking of a land inhabited by elves, goblins and hobbits. However, this is what surrounds you as you cross the remarkable lands of Arizona and New Mexico. (Although I have seen some very strange looking people since I’ve been here though!)

I’ve included some photo’s as always with this blog but there is no way you can adequately capture in a single frame the majesty and sheer breath taking beauty that you encounter around almost every bend as you traverse this part of the world.

I could spend page after page exalting the praises of the places I have visited and you could spends weeks, in stead of the five days I had, exploring the places yourself, so I will just pick out a couple of highlights.

Monument Valley, the star of countless western films, and as famous a backdrop as any in the United States, is amazing. This is not simply a movie set though. Taking millions of years to form and representing a very spiritual site for the Navaho Indians that have lived there for generations, you feel you know the place so well already but are still blown away by these monoliths splendour and dignity as they stand guard over the land; centurions of centuries of change. You would expect here in America that there would be a Mall attached to them by now selling cheap, tacky souvenirs, and a theme park with people wandering around in foam suites dressed as ‘Morris the Monolith’ to attract as many people as possible and take all their money. But here, as with all of the natural wonders I visited there is no marketing, no hype, no schemes to empty your wallet, just the landscape itself, which is all you need.

The Grand Canyon. I’m not sure what I can write about. This is such a indescribable place, that no amount of words or pictures can even do it an ounce of justice. I was prepared before I saw it to be blown away and amazed by its size and scale, but the moment that you first see it you can’t honestly comprehend it all. There is so much to take in all at ounce that your levels of scale and perception are altered because your brain can’t understand seeing something so vast. And what you can see of it from any one place is only a fraction of the whole thing. It floors you that all it takes is time and water to create such a thing. It takes a whole day just to get to the bottom of it! What the first settlers moving west thought when they first came across this mightiest of barriers I don’t know. I think I would have just stopped given up at that point.

And there are countless other places as well; Meteor Crater, The Petrified Forrest, White Sands National Park, El Morro, The Hoover Dam, along with all the natural beauty of the country in between all these places which can be just as striking and picturesque.

After leaving the man made, fake overindulgence of Las Vegas this was the perfect antidote that put all the lights and noise into even starker relief.

There are many, many beautiful natural wonders all over the world, all with their own unique charm and splendour but I can’t think of anywhere with so many different and varied locations with in such relatively close proximity to one another. When I look back on this trip in years to come I will remember all the lovely people I’ve met, the fun I’ve had and the adventures along the way, but I think what will stand out most in my mind are these few days and the wondrous places that I visited and the magnificent spectacles that I saw.

Go! Go now, and you will never regret it!

Until next time…

This week I’ve been listening to…