Muley Point: Morning: Bears Ears II

2024-05-18

A golden sun is beaming into a few clouds. Dawn is breaking. 

We’re off to experience a memorable point of time, a moment in our lives. Just down the sandstone slope is another level of shelf spanning out before our camp, a huge patio.

Wrapped in a thick old Colman sleeping bag, we have had a cozy and warm night. My hoody trapped the body heat from escaping, the wind and fresh air giving that special cool quality to each breath as it cruised across naked faces.

Now, the chilly wind is nearly howling at us. We don jackets over the thermal and wind breaking clothing that we fell asleep in.

We casually stroll off excited for the anticipated morning light and grand vista. Yet at this point, we couldn’t possibly imagine the epic quality of that coming vista.

It is one of those moments, as I approach the cliff’s edge. Walking up the rock’s surface, each step slowly reveals more of what is below.  Piece by pieces, an unbelievable depth is revealed. Each step exposes a deeper and deeper canyon structure below. There are countless layers, thousands of layers of geologic millennia. Eventually, Grand Canyon like cliff walls lead to a tiny sliver of the strip of the San Juan river.

Across the vista, colors are highlighted by that special morning luminescence. The wind rattles DF’s wind pants, flapping.

I walk along a cliff noticing a string of a dirt road far below. Light changes everything. The sun is in and out of clouds of all sizes, casting ever changing shadows and glowing colors.

The vista runs out into the towering shapes of Monument Valley which have lit up first. Then the vast green plain between erupts with an emerald gold hue.

The cliffs that surround everything produce a symphony of unimaginable colors. Slowly, constantly changing, this world comes alive in a brilliant majestic brilliance and expanse.

We wait for the event that we have read about. There is darkness thousands of feet below, where mere shadow contains the remnants of the night. We have been told to get a glimpse of the tiny flowing river as the sun first hits it, to watch for the moment when it reflects the sun and sky, a glowing light, like a piece of mirrored glass. Our curiosity aroused, “What is down there, so far away?” What will appear in that inaccessible chasm.

We watch the show for hours. Daylight creeps into the most dark of recesses, deep down in the depths of the canyon. It rises above the ledge behind us and finally illuminates us, too.

I watch, relating to the birds of prey as they soar out, above and down below us. From my high perch and the space filled only with air and the wide open skies, all around it feels like hovering on a platform.

The light eventually arrives at the river. I imagine that it doesn’t get there some days of the year, but this is summer and solstice is just a month away. How things must thirst it down there, but it comes in finality. The water is muddy from recent rains. There is no glow, but a surprise.

We take a photo here and there, as each amazing event unfolds and compels some kind of documentation. In some way we might preserve it. Each of these gifts can only be partially recorded. There is that way that it touches inside, feelings that no one can truly communicate. There are those parts of experience that a visual image can only practically grasp. If you get lucky it presents a memory to relate to. Even memory can’t completely hold on to stunning moments beyond imagination like these, which are provided in a string in this morning, in this place.

The wind calms, the radiant heat begins to permeate and another layer of clothing falls away. The river isn’t the only thing awaiting the warmth of the sun. With each garment laid next to us, we are brought more of the experiences of life. A surreal visual dream of sight and sound begins to meld with our earthly being, we are like the rock, the green creatures, the fire, wind and water, as air reaches our bodies and they happily react.

Speaking of water, DF heads for camp and a bottle of water forgotten in the excitement of the moment. Compelled into the emerging excitement of the moment, thoughts of all other need may fall away in the distraction.

I sit deliciously quiet. I close my eyes, and find myself in my body. The sandstone’s curves comfort mine, as I do yoga poses and simply breathe. This feels good. I’m getting younger and more in shape. Slowly, but surely, I feel this reality. Next to me, lizards dash across the bedrock in amongst the tortured bushes. Tiny banzai pine trees grow out of rock slabs in this dry region.

Bowls, where water pools, are everywhere.

Some are filled with sand, which have dried and mud has cracked. There, dainty flowers take root and today, produce blooms. Still, over and over, the movement of sun and clouds change everything before us. It brings color, texture, accent, highlights, mass and fascinating unique qualities.

Iconic landforms give me a sense of how small I am and insignificant, how short my time is in my place among this natural wonder. I suspect dinosaur tracks next to me, perhaps these collections of holes are the footprints of beasts at a muddy bank, drinking, a hundred million years ago.  Gazing at monuments in the distance, I ponder the eons of change, the ancient ocean waves brushing against walls, eroding. I can see the vast lands building sandy beaches and shorelines layer upon layer, as ancient seas recede. There is evidence of pressure and the crunch of undetectably slow waves of folding rock.  I see the great oceans draining into a comparative trickle, as its remnants meander, and one by one, rocks fall and then dissolve to be carried hundreds of miles away.

Evidence of a billion years can be seen.

We’re spending the day here. I gather all of the clothing in my hands as I return to camp. There, I stash all of my garments, save shoes.

We will walk out down the jeep trail road.

The next part of this spectacular day will post very soon.

I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.

© The owners of TheFreeRangeNaturist.org as of the year 2015 declare. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to TheFreeRangeNaturist.org with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.