the echo

just a bit north from the Ghost Ranch, is the Echo Amphitheater. within the sandstone cliffs is a natural concave formation, and it makes for some incredible echos. you take a short trail up through the trees, and gradually come to the wall of the theater, a cliff hundreds of feet high.

Speaking normally, our voices boomed.

this Canon Retumbido, towers in layers of red siltstone and fine sandstone. the thick yellow & orange are an ancient layer of sand dunes. and even more layers, of grey gypsum and more sandstone, siltstone and mudstone in reds, yellows and whites.

the formation was caused by water, cascading over the cliffs in the past of eternity.

I read that a legend exists that the large stain running down the wall into the theater is the blood of Navajo warriors, executed en masse on the top of the cliff. the blood having been soaked into the stone, and now a permanent stain.

though geologists say it is actually a "desert varnish", or a "rock rust", caused by the oxidation of the rock minerals after a sudden, overflowing, rain storm. (clay that is brought in with the wind, mixes with rain & the tiny amounts of manganese in the stone, and the dark varnish forms)

we take these adventures so that we can both explore. for me it is also to continue to gain a sense of place here. I grew up knowing where the dirt would begin to change color, understanding the power of a kansas sun overhead and knowing the best places to plant a seed & watch it grow.
and those things are all different here. and the more we see where it is we live, the more I can feel centered whenever I put my feet on the ground.

and yelling into a huge echo was fun too.