Here I am about to step backwards off a 100′ cliff. Trust the ropes I’m telling myself. There’s other adjectives being muttered here. But I ask you, is this not the appropriate face of concern for a guy stepping backwards off of a 200′ cliff?

“You want me to go first?” Tracy asked.

“Woman, please.” Is what I said in my head. “No…” I is all that really squeaked out.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. In just a few feet, it levels out a bit. You’ll feel it with your feet. You can’t see that from your angle.” Tracy said.

She was right. From my angle it just looked like nothingness. My chance to get away from it all.

Once I did trust the ropes, and our guide with the second rope to ensure I didn’t suffer any injury from anything stupid I might do, I began my descent. I wasn’t like an army ranger zipping down, but it kinda was. Again, at least in my head.

Now, here’s Tracy cresting the lip of that 300′ cliff. Notice a difference of expression here. Maybe it’s because I made it down without a splat at the bottom. Or maybe it’s other reasons. Now, look closely, just to the right of her left thigh. That speck waaaaaaaay down there is me. See I did make it down that 500′ if it was a foot, cliff.

We just got back from a trip out west. First a stop in Colorado, where it was appropriately temperate for humans. Then on to Moab and Arches and Canyonland (not a Disney theme park) national parks. It was not appropriately temperate for humans there, cresting 100 degrees by noon each day. On the plus side, Tracy finally saw a sunrise by her own choice, as all activity had to happen early in the day.

On many of our walks through the parks, and even parts of this canyoneering trip–though not the descent–I was often thinking about grandeur. On the descent, I was simply thinking about not splatting. Rugged beauty is a bit of a cliche, but an apt one I think.

Because it was unbelievably hot here, we didn’t encounter many crowds. However, the majority of the people we did encounter were speaking other languages. I felt some pride in this thing that our country has done right, in developing and preserving such places as Arches National Park, along with 62 other national parks in the U.S. In addition to that, are all of the other federal lands that are collectively owned by all of us. Such public lands (not in a national park) are where these pictures of Tracy and I are taken. This grandeur of such places is something we have preserved for each other and can offer to the rest of the world. We don’t have thousand year old cities with commensurate cultural history, but we have grand national parks and natural lands.

It’s the passage of time that always gets me when looking at something this grand and expansive. In the existence of all civilization, hell, possibly our entire species, this place has not really changed that much. Yet, at one time this was covered by water, and then it was flat land, and then millions upon millions of years of erosion has brought it to this state. From our perspective this is how it is. From the perspective of the earth, this is but an ephemeral moment in the existence of this place. I think such contemplation and perspective is one of the gifts such public natural lands has to offer.

Yet, for many they see this as an opportunity to auction off such lands to the highest bidder. We’ve worked so hard to preserve it. I mean we had to first steal it from the indigenous peoples living there, then fight political battles to set them aside, then develop means for pudgy middle-aged guys to access it. The problematic acquisition of the land aside, it boggles my mind that there are many who’d sell off such lands so it could be mined, developed, or who knows what else done to it, you know, because money.

It seems so short-sighted, sort of like selling off a prized family heirloom to pay for a night out on the town. If by chance the efforts of individuals such as Senator Mike Lee result in the sale of public lands, then I’d say the indigenous peoples that were pushed off of those lands should get right of first refusal on the purchase. And if not, then maybe the proceeds from the sale of those lands goes towards reparations to those tribal nations. Of course, that would not happen, you know, because money.

I’ll leave you with this Edward Abbey quote.

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”