Vacation Highlights

Some of the most memorable experiences I've had with nature happened on vacations. Look ahead and read about some of my best experiences!

My fondest nature memories when I was younger were our annual camping trips to Canyonlands National Park. (Click here to transfer directly to the Canyonlands homepage.) We would set up our camper somewhere unbearably hot and dry, a place guaranteed to have an abundance of crawly things with the special talent of finding ways into our tent. Still, we faithfully returned every year to pay homage to this absolutely breathtaking sight.

One of the main attractions drawing us to this park was its abundance of four-wheel driving trails. (you sure can't call them roads!) We'd all eagerly climb in our Jeep, with my dad at the wheel. Next thing I knew, my head was bobbing the ceiling as our car bounded over some near-vertical incline rightfully named SOB Hill. Our eight-track player would be blaring out some loud classical piece in the background as my sister and I squealed with delight. Then my dad would always threaten to stop and teach my older sister how to drive four-wheel, just for the fun of listening to my mom scream objections. I guess you could say it was a family tradition.

Above is a picture of the Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Canyonlands. I've always thought that the arch was beautiful, but when I was little, I remember being scared to death of its enormity. I simply refused to take the nature walk that led up to and under it. I swore the arch had a mind of its own and that it was determined to collapse the very minute that it had me where I couldn't escape. It was so big, and I felt so small then. I remember throwing an absolute fit there in front of everyone, crying and begging them to let me stay behind. My parents ended up dragging me kicking and screaming. This was probably my scariest experience with nature.

Other major vacation highlights when I was growing up were our various camping and day trips to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. (Click here to transfer directly to the Rocky Mountain National Park homepage.) The beauty of these mountains, aspiring to heights of more than fourteen thousand feet above sea level, really demands respect and a sense of awe. I remember pleasant hours spent rocking in a hammock, taking hikes, swimming and canoeing in mountain lakes, and fixing smores by the light of a crackling wood fire. I especially liked the feeling of solitude that I experienced in these places. On day trips, we would often go up above the treeline, packing a picnic lunch to be eaten among the small tundra flowers. The world from so far up is simply breathtaking; everything is so small. I enjoyed every opportunity I had to see the world from this new, and humbling, perspective.

One of my favorite things to do in the mountains is snow-ski. I know that I'll probably never be very good. I'll never stop snow-plowing, and no, I'll probably never go down harder slopes than steep greens. But the exhilaration of gliding down a mountain on ice, while viewing the picturesque Colorado landscape, is difficult to find elsewhere. Other favorite mountain activities of mine include four-wheeling over mountain passes, panning for gold, and riding the Alpine Slide at the ski resorts during summer months.

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