Last year, dozen of us friends packed backpacks, flew to a central American country and went hiking, zip-lining and a full day ATV-ing over the hills driving on winding trecherous trails, stopping n swiming in waterfall pools and lunch on a hill top with vista views of Pacific ocean on one side and thick rainforests with diverse flora and fauna on the other side. This tropical place is similar to our western ghats and it was a fun adventure.
This year as we were exploring places to go this vid caught our attention https://www.facebook.com/share/GD7fy1CZyKJALYQu/?mibextid=Mk4v2M and decided Utah is the place to go. So last week, half dozen of us packed backpacks and went hiking in multiple different National parks in Utah, driving 100s of miles from one park to other (Zion to Bryce to Archies to Canyon Lands) and finally flying back from Salt Lake City. Utah lanscape is quite different. Once massive sand dunes, petrified and became rock (sandstone). Massive rocks, mountains, canyons, hills and ground with full of petrified sand, turned into sandstone. At some places it is hard as granite, elsewhere it is brittle and sand is falling off on the floor. It is an unreal landscape, red in 360 degrees as if you've stepped on Mars. Interestingly, years ago I bought hiking shoes called Mother of All Boots (MOAB II by Merrell), and there I was hiking in town of Moab, UT in those shoes : ) The contrast of the rich greenery from last year to barren red standstones this year, is hard to describe. We signed up for a UTV tour at Moab, only to learn later that we signed up for Hells Revenge Trail. These rented UTVs are driven by us, and living upto its name this 2.5hr drive ended up as one of the heart stopping, adrenaline pumping, nerve wrecking driving experience over the sloping edges of the cliffs, with jaw dropping views all around. Highly recommend if u r on an adventure visit to Moab. The canyon jump was similar to a bungee jump we did from 108th floor of Stratosphere in Vegas. But after we went to Utah, there were other fun places to go so we decided to do the canyon jump after we all turn 50.
Here UTV promo vid: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=66u_It_Xo94
N Route 128: https://www.facebook.com/share/XWazzVWBsudAwU17/?mibextid=oFDknk
It is always inspiring and fun to hang out with high school buddies especially on such hikes. One morning, at the resort suite we stayed, I woke up at 5am and looked to the side only to find one my friends was missing. I come to living room and his shoes were missing. Eventually realized that he went for a 12mile run on America's second most scenic drive near by. It is national park area, there could be wolves, coyotes and who knows what animals roam in the night by the Colorado river that runs parallel to this drive, and no cell phone signal but none of that mattered to him.Woke up, got ready without disturbing others sleep, put on his shoes and hit the road.
Inspired, I quickly freshen up, hop in to the car and drive a few miles into the Archies National Park, go to a Sunrise view area, where the Sun rises behind La Sal Mountains in distance. Opposite to Sun are red sand stones walls of Archies. It was mesmerizing as colors of the park come alive, from dark night to various hues of morning Sun light over these huge cliffs of Archies. I call home to parents and wake up my girls back home to show live Sunrise view of at Archies, making them part of the experience virtually. I put my phone down and sit there for half hour viewing distant peaks of La Sal mountains, soaking the morning Sun while reflecting in my own thoughts of ever changing but continually evolving ones own views, beliefs and perspectives about the immense nectarine beauty and complexities of the experiences that we call Life. Then drove back n joined friends at breakfast. That morning reminded me of an incident from 2009, which I will write next. Stay tuned.
From this week,, nights get longer than days with Summer passing the baton over to Autumn Season. Happy Autumn/Fall Equinox folks!
No comments:
Post a Comment