In the Wilderness
CHARACTERISED BY GIGANTIC STONE STRUCTURES, ARID LANDSCAPES AND CLEAR BLUE SKIES, AMERICA’S WILD WEST IS A POSTCARDESQUE SOJOURN
Blistering heat, alien landscapes, long road trips, Statue of Liberty, canals of Venice, pyramids of Egypt and the Eiffel tower — there is only one place in the world where one can see most of the wonders in the same place, and that place is Las Vegas, Nevada. This is not a story about the sin city, plenty of those are out there. This is a story for those who are willing to venture into the desert, into the great unknown.
A convertible, a girlfriend, the open road, classic American road trip soundtracks and the wild Wild West is how it all began. Arches National Park — there is something about the gigantic orange coloured rocks that makes us question our place in the universe. The mid-morning trek under the scorching desert sun leads us onto a paved path. Do the stones carry the story of humanity with them? Millions of years in the making, inching towards the sky, they’re worshipped in the local lore. Many dialects of English echo through these rocks, as couples, kids and the elderly hike.
It’s a popular route — the seemingly stronger motivating the tired to push onwards. As the narrow steep paths open up, it reveals the Delicate Arch, as if designed and not formed naturally. A trip to the area makes one forget living in cities and realise that it is nature that owns us and not the other way around.
We drive out of arches 150 miles south to Monument Valley. Everyone’s had that moment: Something worth the camera, something that isn’t just for the memory, catches your eye. That is the road to Monument Valley. Most of us have seen the scenery of Monument Valley, in an old western movie starring John Wayne, or as a background for those clichéd travel memes.
If America’s Wild West has a spirit, then it lies in the arid plateaus of Southern Utah, carved in Monument Valley, showing its beauty to the world. We find refuge from the cold desert night, in the midst of Navajo nation, a touristy, yet somewhat realistic Native American Tipi.
The morning sun holds a promise. A Navajo tour guide welcomes us in her jeep. We see the usual tourist spots — the Three Sisters, Big Chief Monument and Sleeping Dragon Rock. Then we go off road, away from the tourists, to the ‘real monument valley’. Not a single soul to be seen around, just silence and no movement. We ride along, seeing the highlights as the trip draws to an end — a sad ride back to Vegas, back to everyday.