The Horseshoe Bend Trail — the short but exposed desert walk to the overlook, the Navajo Sandstone underfoot, and the heat-and-water sense to keep.
We're on the trail now, walking out toward the rim, and it's a proper little desert hike — about three-quarters of a mile each way over open, sandy ground, with one good hill to get up and over. It fools people, because it isn't long, but there's no shade to speak of and the sun off this pale sand and rock is no joke. So take it steady, sip your water as you go, and if it's a hot day, be glad of those little shade shelters along the way — duck under one and let the worst of the heat pass.
Look around you as you walk, because this is high desert, tough and spare and beautiful. Scattered blackbrush and saltbush and a few hardy junipers cling to the sandy soil, and ahead of you rises the great pale dome of Navajo Sandstone, swirled and cross-bedded in long curving lines — those are frozen sand dunes, from a desert that blew across here almost two hundred million years ago. And look down: see how the ground has a dark, crumbly, bumpy crust in places? Try not to step on that. It's alive — a living skin of tiny plants and microbes they call biological soil crust, and it takes decades upon decades to grow. It holds this whole desert together against the wind. So stay on the trail and let it be.
Keep walking toward that rim; the great bend is just ahead. And in a moment I'll tell you who else lives out here on this trail with you, so you can walk easy. Steady on, and keep sipping that water.
Photo: Jbro1186 · CC BY-SA 4.0
