UTAH CANYON COUNTRY
THE SHARP EDGE OF WILDERNESS
SHREDS MUNDANE EXISTENCE.
Hiking evolves beyond recreation. When we find it leads to calm and clarity, hiking becomes meditation. When we sense meditation manifests the divine, hiking becomes reverent, devotional. And when bliss swells within us during intimate communion with wilderness, we realize we’re not just exploring the Earth but venturing into mystical terrain.
Our feet can take us as far as it’s possible to go.
Humans can’t survive without dreaming. Deprived of our nightly flights of imagination, our sanity disintegrates. Likewise, deprived of mystery, our soul withers. We think we need only answers. But answers are merely waypoints. WE ARE CREATURES IMPELLED BY MYSTERY. And just as sleeping summons our dreams, hiking is an invocation to mystery. A trail—if long, arduous and stirring—eventually, inexorably lulls into a state of contemplation, in which we ponder and are strangely soothed by life’s enduring mysteries.
That swarm of details that chases you around the house and office,
distracting you from what's really important? It never follows you far up the trail.
Nature massages your brain.
Caressing your cortex with beauty,
kneading your cerebrum with
soothing sounds, it softens your
stentorian intellect, so you can
hear the quiet, pure voice within.
NO ART GALLERY RIVALS THOSE OPEN TO THE SKY.
MOUNTAINS TALK
canyons listen
The first people on Earth were hikers and campers.
Hiking and camping were intrinsic to our species 200,000 years ago. It was our way of life. Now it’s just a ritual, but still vital.
We walk the earth and bed down on it to arouse our elemental selves. To shed the burden of of civilization. To seek catharsis.
When thoughts lie heavy in our brains like
sodden clumps, walking jostles them apart,
fluffs them up, evaporates them. Walking exposes us to the unexpected, strange, random. Walking unlocks
clarity and throws awareness wide open.
Pounding a trail softens your heart.
