Natural Patriarch
The Fourth of July long weekend is a great time to relax and enjoy the great outdoors. A picnic with the family or a adventure on the river. This article I just read from the Washington Post has a great patriotic twist. Read more below from, Red Rocks, Blue Skies and White Water.
“The rock is red. The sky is blue. The clouds, when they show up, are puffy white. It all glides by at the languid, satisfyingly informative pace of a panning shot. When the gaze drifts above the canyon rim, what appears is the signature iconography of a John Ford film: butte, mesa, chimney rock.
And then, on the fourth day, you look up and the oarsman is gone.
How odd. That looks like him downstream, swimming frantically back toward the yellow raft no longer drifting languorously on the famous Colorado River. Swollen by the largest snowmelt in recent years, the waterway has meandered to the point in southern Utah where there are no more banks to wash over and simply enrich with silt. When the Colorado reaches Cataract Canyon, the stone walls draw closer, the bottom pitches forward and the river accelerates, churning massive waves from left and right to crash together in the middle. These waves are tall, angry and of profound concern to Brian when he reappears, almost magically, in the little boat, grabs the oars and takes a long look downstream.
“Oh [bad word]!” he says. “Oh [bad word]! Oh [bad word]!”
Turns out we’re in an adventure film. And no one is ruling out disaster.”
Check out The Washington Post Travel!
