The following was taken from The Human Landscape in
"Arches; Where Rock Meets Sky" by Nicky Leach. This well expresses my
feelings about being out in nature:
"Studies in Canyonlands have recorded an acoustic level
one notch above that found in a soundproof recording studio. Ambient sound
levels and crowds in national parks have increased to such a degree that the
National Park Service now manages silence and solitude as a resource. Canyon
Country's silence is truly rare, one of its greatest resources. Caught up in
the busy-ness of civilization, perhaps we don't notice noise pollution anymore
or the effect that our expanding global population has on our nerves. Airplanes
buzz across the Grand Canyon. Idling vehicles sit at overlooks. Larger numbers
of hikers on popular trails means more talk and socializing. Campgrounds have
the look, as my friend Jeff commented, of refugee camps, which perhaps they
are, as we increasingly flee our stressful urban lives.
Even the shortest hikes outdoors can strip away the armor of
culture and lay us bare to ourselves. We begin to speak in the language of the
heart, not the mind. There is a fellowship in nature that is lacking in our
man-made environments, which, for all our ingenuity, are limited by a human
view of the world. For me, true diversity embraces other life forms as well as
different cultures and requires a reciprocity we still seem unable to envision.
I doubt that nature minds, but I sense that it is we who are diminished.
A small hawk flies directly in front of me, oblivious to my
presence. A cottontail bolts from behind a rock and disappears into a clump of
dark-gray skeletal blackbrush. Stink beetles crawl slowly across sand, then
disappear into holes in the ground. There is a rustling in a stately old
juniper, the ear-splitting squawk of a jay, then silence. To the northwest are
jointed cliffs that have been weathered into odd fins. They are tilted at
almost a 45-degree angle. I marvel that they can stay upright at all. Like so
many other features in the park, the redrocks seem choreographed to geological
perfection, graceful, soaring, bending, leaping. Everything seems to be in
motion, sliding out of view in a long slow freefall."
