On the Road Again: To Utah's National Parks: Arches…. More than just Arches.

We all know that feeling….. walk into a shrine, or a church, or an old building/venue. That feeling that there is more than meets the eye, a certain energy or power is lying under the surface. Maybe it’s just imagination, maybe it’s remnants of energy that resulted from the activities at that place. When it comes to metaphysical phenomena it usually comes down to the old philosophical Empiricist versus Dualist arguments. (Yes … I took those classes.)

It’s always a balance… pragmatic realism is just so persuasive. Still, it’s always good to trust your gut feeling or if you have a premonition… pay attention to it.

Here at Arches, we drove into a beautiful park with stunning rock formations… all natural…. all different. There is an alien quality to this park. The formations are huge and foreboding. The landscape is barren—desert, arid, not conducive to life as we are know it.

Still, it’s the formations that stand out (call out). Not just because they are shaped like arches. Previous explorers have named them for what they look like. Even MaryAlice named a couple. (One set was ‘The Three Little Pigs’… no I didn’t photograph it).

I couldn’t help, while driving around the park, noticing how some formations had a presence about them. Not only an energy, but a visual and … visceral presence. I know this was a holy area for early inhabitants and many of the formations held significance.

Maybe fantasies like the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings have influenced me. Still, the formations looked either like they were emerging into sentience … or eroding into anonymity after eons of existence.

Following this I will share some pictures (which cannot even come close to portraying the majesty of these formations) with a little description that might help you see what I saw and felt.

The Mask of the Gods