Considered one of the least accessible parks in the continental United States, Canyonlands National Park offers a wilderness of countless canyons and fantastically formed buttes.
The deeply entrenched Colorado and Green Rivers collide at the heart of the park, then rage south. Separately, the two streams are often placid. But together, they can create exhilarating rapids, including the tumultuous Cataract Canyon.
The rivers split the park into distinct districts full of serrated cliffs, spires, boulders, and colorful rock that light up at sunrise and sunset. Desert mesas plunge thousands of feet into canyon webs, some of which have seen little to no human exploration.
Canyonlands National Park is divided into three unique districts. The most visited section is Island in the Sky, located at the park’s northern edge, closest to the highways crossing the sparsely populated plateau. Atop the mesa is Upheave Dome – not a dome but rather a crater formed as a meteorite smashed into the earth around sixty million years ago.
From Island in the Sky, you can see the river’s confluence and peer across to the other two areas. The Needles, is the park’s southeastern area, named for its slender sandstone columns. And to the west is The Maze, undeveloped and a long drive from anywhere.
To the northwest, in Horseshoe Canyon, you find The Great Gallery, where phantomlike figures, with heads and bodies but no arms or legs, gaze silently from a mural painted on the stone cliff. These depictions are different sizes, have different adornments in a variety of stripes or patterns or shadings, and a few have faces with expressions that leave us baffled: are they scared? Angry? Grieving? Bigger than life, the tallest exceeds seven feet in height, and the whole illustration stretches two hundred feet horizontally.
Nobody alive today knows the story, or stories, these figures tell. But when we gaze upon them, our imaginations are empowered, our curiosity fueled as we are drawn into the mind of the artist.
Not knowing the story compels us to discover our own story in the mural, then to share it with others. Perhaps the whole point of the Great Gallery is to inspire new stories for the lucky ones who get to see it with their own eyes.
Our faith is built around stories. From the creation story through the nation of Israel, the gospels and the beginnings of the church, all the way through to John’s vision in Revelation, the Bible is a revered collection of faith stories that provide inspiration and guidance for our lives. Its stories shape who we are and who we are becoming – and we all have a story to tell.
What are the stories you remember from when you were young? What stories give you enjoyment or inspiration or solace? What do you want your life story to be?
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