Approaching from the north on Hwy 191, on the right side of the road there is a wall…a very tall wall of red rocks. Not mountains, no it looks like a red wall.
In this picture the red wall I’m talking about is to the left of the road. This is taken from Arches National Park, but this wall continues into and on through Moab, along 191.
To the left there are the snow capped La Sal Mountains, the tallest being well over 12,000 feet.
View from right behind the OK RV Park, where I’m staying.
This is a popular tourist destination, and I can certainly see why, with Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park and La Sal National Forest all close by, it’s a pretty amazing place.
There are lots of ways to get around. You can:
Hike, go by Jeep, ATV, Hummer, bicycle, horse, zipline, climb, sky dive, and on the Colorado River you can take a boat and have dinner, kayak, jet boat or white water raft. You can take a tour of any of those also, and you can fly over.
In this small town of 5000+ you can eat vegan (Yay), BBQ, Chinese, deli, deserts, Italian, juice, Mexican, pizza, sushi, subs, Thai or taste wine.
It’s beautiful. It’s awe inspiring…these canyons and arches and walls and mountains. It all gets me to thinking…
I look at the town…and at the rock art on the canyon walls…
Petroglyphs
More petroglyphs
…and I wonder…what would those people think if they could see their home-place now? How things have changed in 700-1000 years. And yet the rocks are still here bearing their messages (that we, with all our learning don’t really understand). The river is still here. Much of the fauna and flora are the same. They would recognize the human form, but what would they think of all of our motorized contraptions, and what we have done to the earth-mother?
Had the Europeans…and the rest of the world…left the natives on this continent alone, how would things be different today?
Is “progress” really progress?
Is to “live long and prosper” really advantageous?
What is being “successful” in life?
Is technology really the best way?
The simplicity and innocents of the old ways is sometimes so appealing to me. Not that I’m not a fan of electricity and my IPhone, and epidurals, oh yeah, I love so many of our modern conveniences….but could the price we pay for them be too much, in some ways?
Have we lost our awareness that we are all one…with each other…with the animals…with the earth?
So many thoughts, the rock art produces…
Red rock wall against the Colorado (red) River.
To end on a lighter note! Joy and Shiloh have been going to the dog park here in Moab every day.
Shiloh and Joy at the Moab Off Leash Bark Park!
Wandering Spirit 
I ponder those very same questions myself whenever we travel. There are many places in the West that bring those questions into sharp focus. Often as I stand and look at a view, I see the way it used to look 200, 300, 1000 years ago (maybe the way my imagination sees it) and I am always humbled toI think about what a small slice of time we occupy and how all our technology and material goods will give way to something else, for better or worse. We seem to have the desire to live large upon the earth, rather than lightly. It is hard for most people to think about the future we are leaving to the next generations, let alone do anything about it.
Yes to all of that Marcia. I too am humbled when I think about what a short time span we have here, and in a couple of life spans, how we have thoughtlessly wrought so much destruction upon the earth…the animals….each other. Whew. For so many it’s all about power and money, and more power and more money, and really nothing else matters. Isn’t there some kind of wake up call? Well there is, but those in power don’t seem to hear or see it….blinded and deafened by the power and money.
“The simplicity and innocents of the old ways is sometimes so appealing to me.”
Ah, yes! The noble savage, the literary stock character and myth, that embodies the concept of an idealized indigene, outsider, or “other” who has not been “corrupted” by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity’s innate goodness.
The reality is those simple and innocent old ways were brutal in many ways. Yes, we have brought much destruction upon the earth, the animals and each other but so did the noble savage. The BIG difference is that there are so many MORE of us now. When the noble savage was free to roam they could despoil an area, hunt out all the game foul the nearby water source and then move on. Modern man can no longer do that – there are so many of us that everyplace has now been despoiled.
We can’t do it, but we DO, do it. We are doing it, and we know better. We have centuries now, of history in this, and we just keep getting worse. we don’t learn from our mistakes, we ignore them. We use water like we have an infinite source….destroy the oceans and whatever beings get in our way of ‘fishing’….poison the earth and crops with weed killer and when the weeds learn how to get around it, we just add more poison. We grow enough grain to feed to world, and we feed it to the cows and pigs, then sell the ‘meat’ that the starving world can’t afford.
Oh boy, I could go on.
When I look at these drawings on the rocks, it IS innocents compared to the communications we have now. Such simplicity.
Now that we know better, we can do better. And yes, here and there we do. But it sure would be interesting to know what would have happened if this continent would not have been overtaken.