Created 3-Dec-10
Modified 3-Dec-10
Peekaboo (Canyonlands NP – Needles District)
With the trailhead virtually right at my campsite I got an early start and didn’t see a soul until halfway back. I like those early starts when I can. The silence in this area was first apparent yesterday as the ringing in my ears from ‘civilization’ finally waned and I started to settle into the daily routine of hiking. Today with the early morning calm it really hit home. I first experienced this last year on the approach to Havasu, one of the great side effects of solo desert hiking.
“But for the time being, around my place at least, the air is untroubled, and I become aware for the first time today of the immense silence in which I am lost. Not a silence so much as a great stillness – for there are a few sounds: the creak of some bird in a juniper tree, an eddy of wind which passes and fades like a sigh, the ticking of the watch on my wrist – slight noises which break the sensation of absolute silence but at the same time exaggerate my sense of the surrounding, overwhelming peace. A suspension of time, a continuous present. …. No travelers, no campers, no wanderers have come to this part of the desert today and for a few moments I feel and realize that I am very much alone.” Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
It is an out and back trail cumulating in a backcountry campsite and some interesting rock art panels on the sandstone wall. I very much enjoyed this hike, as with most it was impossible to figure where the trail would go next and the cairns were critical to navigation. I think if I go back I will definitely try and do some backcountry camping in this area.
© Clayton Ditzler