We were just walking through the desert, led by cairns, inspired by the landscape and each other's company.
Last weekend, when a group of CU Hiking Clubbers and I stumbled upon the same view where a few new friends and I agreed to sit in silence for several minutes and stare out at the land of the Needles under a purple sky, I smiled. I remembered that view, the feeling, and the magic.
A year ago, my trip to the Needles District in Canyonlands National Park in Utah was where the seed of desert addiction was planted within me. I was simply inspired by its raw beauty and one of our trip leaders, who understands the Southwest in the same way that I do now. Since then, the desert has continually called. From the Grand Canyon to the San Rafael Swell, from the Maze to Colorado National Monument, the desert has always been on my mind.
But what really is the desert addiction?
It starts with an underestimation— there's nothing in the desert. The Southwest is a wasteland. It's hot and dry and things don't really live there.
It grows with an appreciation— a classic first trip to Utah shows you the delicacy of Arches National Park, the grandeur of Canyonlands, and the vastness of the Grand Canyon. A realization is born that the desert does indeed have things, but things that cannot be comprehended until witnessed firsthand. The desert silence stuns you, the desert night skies blow your mind, the desert canyons humble you.
It then nests within you into an understanding— it becomes a part of your deepest self. The desert is not a wasteland, it is a perfect balance of too much and too little, where any elemental addition throws the entire ecosystem off neutrality. The desert says nothing, in it is only interpretation. Its sandstone layers and twisted junipers lead you to the heart of the desert.
This is what I've learned in the last year. I doubt that I understand the desert in the same way as some Southwestern fanatics, such as Edward Abbey and a few of my friends, but it has been slowly coming to me.
A similar trip to the Needles a year later gave me the chance to lead others to this desert addiction. As I pointed out some of the major landmarks and biological features, I think I hooked a few of them. I can only hope that they have the chances to experience the Southwest deserts in the same way that I did, so they can overcome their underestimation, begin to appreciate and eventually understand just why the desert continually calls us.