A Walk Through Time

The contrast in the landscape between where I live now and where I grew up is quite dramatic. The mossy and dark forests of the Pacific Northwest keep their secrets, swallowing up any evidence of past human presence. But in the dry forests of the Colorado Plateau, you can find human history around almost every turn of the trail. Thousand-year-old ruins sit next to the local KOA. Pottery sherds are so plentiful they become part of the gravel on the trail. This aspect of land where I live now, I love. It is so easy to feel connected to recent and ancient human history. The closest forest access to my house happens to be a part of the historic Beal Wagon Road. A trail that was forged beginning in the late 1850's, a project funded by the US government to build a road from Arkansas to California. The party of 50 men were accompanied by 22 camels to carry their supplies. This trail marker is a subtle reminder that for many years, people have been walking in the same footsteps as we do today.

I like to seek out these historical reminders wherever they lay. It gives me an odd push and pull feeling, a comfort that people from long ago had very similar experiences to me but also a reminder of how short our lives are as compared to the backdrop of the world we inhabit. I have read about other pieces of history that hide in the forests around me, Aspen carvings from Basque sheep herders, petroglyphs near a small spring. I will keep searching for these signs, which help to ground me in this world but connect me to the eternal human experience.