I am about to embark on a trip to one of my favorite ecosystems in the world: the desert. Lake Powell used to be a vacation my family and close friends took every year since I was a little girl, but as us kids have grown older and all of our lives grew increasingly busy, the vacations became more of a challenge to carve out time for, and annual trips turned into every couple years, dwindling to non existent.

Finally the usual suspects decided to get their act together and plan a reunion trip for August 2007, undoubtedly the best month of the year to go i.e. 80 degree water. As our departure date grows closer, I have found it challenging to contain my excitement. Everyday at the office I flip my desk calendar to August 10^th and count the days in between now and then like a child counting down Christmas. Clearly my initial pleasure lies in sharing this time with family and good friends. It has been too long since we have all been together, and by now there are new additions to the extended family: babies, spouses and friends.

After the company I keep, the next best thing about this trip is the environment. Being born a cold blooded person, (as in I keep a small space heater running underneath my desk 12 months out of the year) I love any climate that provides me with soaring temperatures during the day and cools down to a balmy 86 at night. So that’s a personal bonus for me that others may not embrace. The weather factor aside, the desert is one of the most breathtaking places in the world, especially in this prime spot where arid meets wet.

Our first day out, we pick up the houseboat and head out of the marina early in the morning. Stretching vast in front of you is a pristine sheet of turquoise glass, not yet bombarded by disruptive water crafts. Then surrounding the water on either side are massive sandstone bluffs crocheted with deep ambers, reds, oranges and greens that sing when they meet the sun. Each one is so unique in size and shape, it’s as if they have been painstakingly sculpted by hand. Is that mountain shaped like a cookie jar? Beyond these soaring towers of rock is a cerulean sky dappled with thunderclouds that seem to cuddle with the cliffs below. As rays of sun beam golden on the morning before you, every element is contrasting and relating as one and you can’t help but feel privileged to be witness to God’s handy work. It’s overwhelming to think of what amazing beauties and adventures lie beyond. Like caverns carved out of the basins of buttes creating an echoing hideaway or narrow water passages amidst enormous skyscrapers of rock; natures equivalent to Venetian canals…We take our motorized “gondolas” and uncover the untouched. It is places in life such as this that provoke thanks to God for the gift of sight. Although photographs struggle to do it justice, pictures of the desert take me back to places that I have discovered in my travels and remind me of places that are mine alone…If you are a photographer I would suggest making the desert your next destination.