Fatale Abstraction

My favorite place on earth is a gorgeous little corner of Southeast Arizona called Chiracahua National Park. When you think of majestic canyons, the obvious one to consider in the USA is the Grand one, whose magnificence can not be overstated. However, when you drive into the Chiracahua NP, there is an incredibly intimate feeling about this canyon. To get there from Tucson, you must drive about an hour on bad dirt road, and that time may be used constructively to clear your head of all the spirit-killing appurtenances of civilization. I went in the dead of winter, and saw fewer than 20 people the entire time I was in the park. The road to the heart of the canyon follows its deepest crevice along a stream. Looking up either side of the canyon walls, you are treated to breathtaking vistas of hundred-ton boulders balancing on pinnacles just inches wide. Everything seems deliberately placed with a delicacy that belies the gravity of the ornamentation. Even in freezing temperatures, the trees are so aromatic that you feel you've never smelled clean fresh air before in your life, and if you take the time to notice, you'll see some species of birds for the first time. This is a place of profound beauty, and while I'd like to keep it a secret, I wish everyone could go there at least once. This is a sacred place.