"Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself." Madame Blavatsky; "Voice of the Silence", 1889.
Paraphrased: “You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.”
Words I have always lived by. Part of the excitement of getting to a destination, is the actual journey. This is why, I am addicted to road trips and am absolutely glad and excited that Josh shares this same sentiment with me. America is the perfect land for such long trips, especially here in the West. Looking out the window, as landscapes go by, I find myself speechless and enamored. Taking roads less taken is also key to our roads trips, which falls right back to making the journey just as exciting as the destination.
The image above is from the top of a mesa, in the extreme parts of SE Utah. From this spot, we can see Monument Valley and Mexican Hat. Here, we had just left Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and had begun our treck northwest to our temporary night-destination of Capitol Reef National Park. We chose to cut through the deserts diagonally, taking smaller than usual roads. Little did we know that this particular road was to reach a sheer sandstone wall and would have turned to bare dirt and switchbacks, straight up it. You can see the paved portion of the road in the distance and the dirt portion on the right. An amazing sight! A pleasant surprise and a leg of the journey we will always remember.
The images below speak for themselves, we think :) Our path took us straight to Sedona, AZ (where I attended one year of high school, at a little school called Verde Valley School). From there, we drove to Jerome; through Flagstaff; to Meteor Crater; Canyon de Chelly and it's White House Ruins at the bottom of the canyon where we met my old archaeology coworker and friend, Jen, form a decade earlier in my life (she is a staff archaeologist for the National Park there); on to Monument Valley; Mexican Hat; Natural Bridges National Monument; Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area, to the far Northeastern edge of Lake Powell, where no one ever goes, seriously!; then Capitol Reef National Park.
We didn't stop at every single location overnight, if at all, because we were on a bit of a schedule to get back to Portland with days to recuperate for our wedding season. But we know that that area is amazing and we will be back with plenty of time to explore!
Thanks for looking at our photos and indulging in our trips as much as we do :))) <3
~ Alice (& Josh)
PS: clicking on any image will make it larger... some deserve the treatment! :)
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