A Narrative Journey Into the U.S. National Parks and Around the Globe
According to my now dog-eared guide book, the round-trip hike to Delicate Arch would be a moderately strenuous three-mile trek. I, for one, wasn’t going to complain. After being constrained to the passenger’s seat of our rental for several hours, I was ready to reawaken the muscles in my legs and back. But, standing outside …
Ancient Native American etchings intermixed with names of travelers who had stopped by this rock in the 1800s. I recognized some of the drawings: a man on horseback, bow and arrow in hand; a cluster of animal tracks; a peace sign. Others were more abstract, such as swirls and tight ripples which curled around the …
Early Monday morning, a feeling of unease extracted me from some indistinct dream and deposited me back into a fusty motel room in Utah. I opened my eyes a fraction to check the time and was greeted by the sun’s rays gilding the floral curtains hung over the window. Perhaps if I lay still beneath …
(A version of this essay was a semifinalist in the 2017 I Must Be Off! travel writing competition.) “We made it!” I whooped as our rental car rushed past a mustard-yellow sign decorated with chili peppers. After several hours on the road, we had entered New Mexico. “Make sure you pick up a rock for …
We were going back! Planning our trip a month before, I had set aside two days on our itinerary for the two quintessential Zion hikes I knew we couldn’t pass up. The first was Angel’s Landing, the notorious muscle-stretcher we had already conquered. The untraditional Narrows trail was the second. We wouldn’t have to contend …
I drifted into consciousness slowly the next morning, as if the previous day required a deeper sleep to account for its grandeur. However, it was not thoughts of Bryce Canyon which woke me. Shouts emanating from the bathroom informed me that Heather couldn’t turn off the bathtub faucet and water was spraying onto every surface …
A chime from Heather’s phone woke us after little more than four hours of sleep. With exhaustion still clouding my mind—I couldn’t imagine how Heather felt after driving until 2:00 am—I knew adrenaline and my excitement for our day at Bryce Canyon would have to sustain me. Thankfully, I had an ample supply since our …
“Excuse me,” a guy said as he leaned across my chest with a camera. In the already confining cabin, the sleeve of his floral button-up was a bit too close to my nose for my liking. Fifteen minutes earlier, the captain had let us know our plane would be crossing over the eastern end of …
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The Barefooted Soul 