Baking in Beauty Dance Camp Trip
July 2007
The resolution on some of these pictures is not so great. Oh well!
And I realize it will take quite a while for this page to load.... I just couldn't bring myself to create a bunch of different pages for these pictures. I wanted to keep it sequential and ongoing, as the trip was.
We began with Kirtan at Joy and Bernie's house in Torrey, UT, which turned out to be a lovely little town.
Bernie and Cheryl
Michael
Patrice
Sky Majida
Capitol Reef National Park is filled with apricot trees which were bearing ripe fruit when we were there. This tree is at the parking lot end of our campground area.
This is the view from the other end of the campground.
We dedicated the Dance Camp to our friend Mark, who was one of the original visionaries who dreamed up the idea of dancing in this location. Mark sat under this tree and envisioned the dancers here. Mark passed away last November. We set up this altar to honor him.
Ma'abud making music in the communal kitchen/dining area.
We began each day with breakfast together, and then LAUGHTER YOGA! When you get 40 people together laughing it is truly contagious. I didn't take any pictures of the laughter yoga - I was laughing too hard! ROTGLMAO - rolling on the ground laughing my ass off - literally! Too much fun to be able to take pictures!
One group of tents - and music waiting to happen!
Michael and Sky relaxing in front of another group of tents.
My tent on the left. My traveling companion Armaiti enjoying a good laugh!
Happy Campers - Terri, Wren and Ma'abud.
Larry and Lorraine.
Coming together for the Dance! Larry, Lorraine, Nancy, Terri and Wren.
Sing, Dance and Be Joyful!
Dancing in the shade of the beautiful trees.
Eliyahu McLean spoke to us in the afternoons about his amazing peace work in the Middle East - the Land of the Prophets. Visit his website at http://www.jerusalempeacemakers.org/eliyahu/
Bhakti listens to Eliyahu.
Eliyahu's speaking circle.
Larry, Lorraine, Terry and Kent listening to Eliyahu's amazing stories.
Some of us who felt an especially close connection to Mark went down to the Fremont River to do a remembrance of our friend, and to release some of his ashes into the river.
Looking downstream....
And a lovely shady place to sit in the cool water during the hot afternoon. Ahhhhh......... wonderful!
After the Dance Camp ended, we explored the Capitol Reef National Park a bit more before heading home. This is the Capitol Dome formation. There is a lot of volcanic rock in the area as well - see the black stones on the ground.
Scenery in the park.
I was fascinated with these "hole-y" cliffs.
More "hole-y" cliffs. They kind of looked like petrified Swiss cheese.
A "hole-y" volcanic stone outside the Visitor's Center.
Here is a view of the water flowing down into the rocks toward a waterfall. I didn't take my camera to the waterfall - and regretted that - but not enough to climb back up the trail to get it.
Beautiful red rock and green vegetation scenery.
Red rock cliffs with some green streaks.
More red and green beauty.
More red rock cliffs.
After leaving the park we climbed in elevation up into some pine and aspen country with amazing views.
Another high country view.
Lichen on stone.
I am always amazed when I see vegetation growing right out of stone!
I love the contrast of colors and textures here - the soft sagey green colors and feathery textures of the plants and the pastel pinks, yellows, oranges and lavenders of this stone.
A close-up of the stone.
A bit lower in elevation we came to the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument area.... incredibly beautiful multilevel vistas.
One stretch of road had VERY deep canyons on both sides of the road, shoulders about 6 to 8 feet wide - and NO GUARDRAILS! You definitely need to be paying attention when driving here!
Looking out on the other side of the same tree as in the picture above. These pictures really don't give a realistic sense of the depth of the canyons on each side of the road, but the view is still awesome!
Back into red rock country, we came to a wonderful coffee house built into the side of the mountain. They had put in some truly beautifully landscaped gardens there.
Gardens...
More gardens with red rock views beyond...
Nancy enjoying the gardens.
SUNFLOWER!
Macro photo of a very small blue flower.
And then we came to Bryce National Park - Wow!
Tree growing in stone.
One of my favorite OH! moments was when we came around a bend and got the first view of this arched passageway in the stone. At the bottom of the arch you can see where they have smoothed and filled in the hole blasted in the stone with concrete, colored to match the stone. I love the tree growing in the stone on top of the arch.
And then there is a place where you are driving through a heavily wooded area, and all of a sudden you come around a bend and this amazing vista opens up! A complete change of scenery and geology in only a few feet!
The same vista looking more closely at the immediate foreground, where there is a small canyon.
Looking across that area towards the left you see the beginning of the Vermillion Cliffs.
A more detailed view of the Vermillion Cliffs.
And finally in Navajo country, perhaps 60 to 80 miles North of Flagstaff, there is an area where there are lots of low mounds of multi-colored mineral deposit hills. They appear to be somewhat "soft" like mounds of gravel, but they are solid. Very strange country with a unique, almost eerie beauty unlike anything else I've ever seen.
And soon we were home again!
"Nature is the art of God." ~Dante
