HOODOOS
BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK
20 April 2018
HOODOO
{ noun }
:: from the Southern Paiute “oohdoo” - “to be afraid”
Our world is full of a hundred thousand little deaths. Unseen endings, hidden alleys, steep drop offs and dark voids. To walk behind the veils, beyond and out of all known sight, that is the awesome and terrifying adventure we all must take.
When I was little I feared death just as I feared the scary character from Beetlejuice. I didn’t know what would become of me, when I am turned back to earth and mud, root and bone. I still don’t. But I have formed my own theories, after careful observation of nature’s own ways. For, death is everywhere, clinging and hugging onto life. Life and death. Death and life. Creation and destruction. They are present in the very crust and core of our world.
The canyons of Bryce Canyon were carved by perpetual snow, rains, wind and storms - elements of erosion, destroying and deconstructing the land. Yet, birthed from this act of destruction is a new form - a village of hoodoo houses, home to all manner of trees, plants, animals and insects, humans and any number of ghosts that call the canyon home.
Ponderings & small wonders
a maze like this inspires ideas of exploration -
so many unseen areas, nooks and crannies to be discovered.
the Paiute people have legends of people turned to stone by Coyote.
a long moment spent hugging a Ponderosa pine
the sweet cinnamon smell of it’s bark in my nostrils.
a thought: Earth wants to be seen and loved.
a raven followed me to the van, so inquisitive.
the biting cold, the views, the surreal feeling of the landscape.
watching sunrise, shifting shadows in the hoodoo valley.
crackled mud beds, paint palettes of ochre hues,
formed through ancient sea and desert dunes.
destruction leads to creation.
I SPY:
douglas fir
spruce
aspen
bristlecone pine
oak
prairie dogs
stellar’s jays
ravens
ospreys
mule deer
natural bridges
hoodoos
spires
manganese & iron lake silt = pink stone
