Big rocks, big country

We awakened at 3:45 a.m. on Tuesday, checked out of the hotel in Moab and drove to the Wilson Arch in SE Utah, for sunrise. The sunrise turned out to be less than spectacular, but the early start gave us plenty of time to see Monument Valley, the Four Corners, and sunset at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Today, Steve was up for sunrise, and we’ll watch the sunset at the North Rim tonight before driving up to Zion by midnight. Nothin’ like making every minute of a trip count.

Luke took this photo of Steve at the base of the Wilson Arch – which is tiny compared with most of the formations we’re seeing. I’m posting it in an attempt to illustrate the scale of the rocks and landscapes that almost assault our senses each day. Huge. Big enough that my mis-identification in the photograph posted yesterday isn’t as odd as it might seem, because it’s hard for the human brain to grasp the enormity of what the human eyes are looking at. Utterly awesome, in the true sense of the word.

And good to feel very small, in the grand scheme of earth.