"The remnants of the land remain of impressive but fantastic wildness, mute witnesses of the powers of frenzied elements, wrecking the world. These were the powers that fashioned those monoliths that rise lofty monuments from the southern plains … and they strewed over a region as large as an empire such bewildering spectacles of mighty shape that Utah must always be the land sought by explorers of the strange and marvelous."
- HENRY L. A. CULMER
从Capital Reef 往Bryce Canyon 开的时候,厌倦感突然来袭。十多天在外,大家都疲劳了,以致于到达公园才三点多,居然没有一个人想出来玩儿。在Visitor Center转了一圈儿之后,决定去旅馆。这是这个行程中唯一定的一个log cabin, 只是为了体验。然后跑到小镇上的餐馆吃了一顿牛仔晚餐,早早休息,期待第二天满血复活 ... 更多
“Once or twice in a lifetime (maybe more than that if a person is very fortunate);
In the perfect place, under conditions that may never occur again--
Perhaps on a mountain top with the late sun breaking through clouds in diffused radiance--
Eternity may cease its flow the world pause,
for one incomprehensible moment……
An instant in time, to be treasured forever."
WARD J. ROYLANCE
犹他真是个神奇的地方,各种奇石峡谷,干旱少雨,缺乏植被。大热天在这样的地方徒步旅行,很有些自讨苦吃的况味儿。一路走来,发现自讨苦吃的人还不少。有不少是从大老远地球的另一端跑来,还不是第一次来。很多以前自己来过的,现在带着孩子,亲戚和父母来的,昨天碰到两家这样的 ... 更多
"I love the grim gaunt edges of the rocks, the great bare backbone of the earth, rough brows and heaved-up shoulders, round ribs and knees of the world's skeleton protruded in lonely places."
- MAYNARD DIXON
在研究行程之前,从来没听说过峡谷之乡。
拱门公园倒是大名鼎鼎,在我的目标路线之内。读了不少中英文的拱门公园之旅,一边研究这些行程攻略,也看看地图和公园介绍。拱门公园所在地的Moab周边有两个国家公园,还有一个州立公园,加上恐龙遗址,于是毫不犹豫地定了三晚。前不久看见说去拱门公园需要预订进园时间,走之前还没搞清楚状况,在羚羊谷的时候网上预定了昨天进去的时间,下午两点 ... 更多
"In this glare of brilliant emptiness, I this arid intensity of pure heat, in the heart of a weird solitude, great silence and grand desolation, all things recede to distances out of reach, reflecting light but impossible to touch, annihilating all thought and all that men have made to a spasm of whirling dust far out on the golden desert."
- EDWARD ABBEY
Monument Valley, 此行很期待的一个地点儿。据说这是美西南被拍最多的地点,地界儿不大,那几块石头的确很独特,唯美。就是里面路开起来太费劲儿了,要是里面路修好一些就好了。
顶着烈日,这样几乎寸草不生的地方,想象不出来早期的牛仔们怎么生存下来的,那些在这里生活了世世代代的印地安人怎么活下来的。水源,食物来源都是个巨大的考验 ... 更多