Accepting the Unexpected Journey

When I made the plans to stay in Moab, Utah, my only goal was seeing natural arches. I had no idea what else we would discover as we traveled around the entire region. What we found was natural wonders that none of us will soon forget. Now it was time to head home.

God’s creation is beautiful, and peacefully sitting under the arch with my best friend while the sky changed to dusk was the perfect end to a beautiful day. In visiting another dream park, I learned that one week wouldn’t be enough to see everything that Arches National Park has to offer, but I had seen enough to be satisfied.

We uncertainly entered the day after our tours through Mesa Verde. There were a couple things that we thought we might want to do, but we knew were weren’t going to do everything on the list.

In the end, Mesa Verde was everything I had dreamed about and more. Pictures don’t do the dwellings or the landscape justice. To know that the ancient peoples figured out how to engineer their lives in a way that respected and utilized the earth is both inspiring and frustrating, making me wonder how, in the 21st century with all of our modern advances, we could better take care of the home that God has given us. It was a national park stop that taught us a great deal about the history of our country long before European settlement and reminded us to take care of our planet.

I knew that our family would enjoy the caves, but I had no idea the impact the stop would have on all of us. It took me awhile to figure out the difference between our two favorite cave explorations. Mammoth is magnificent; Carlsbad is stunning. What makes Mammoth unique is the long human history of the cave; what makes Carlsbad unique is that it shows in elaborate detail the awesomeness of creation underground. That God put a process into place that continued to grow and develop and change over the years into an elaborate masterpiece is amazing to me. While I’m ready to see more above the earth’s surface, our memories from underground will follow us for a long time.

It was only a four hour visit, but we fully appreciated what one of Texas’s national parks had to offer. Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a beautiful, relatively untouched park. Most of it cannot be reached by vehicle, which makes exploration a little more difficult, but we discovered that is part of the charm.