How about a canyon

I went to Arizona and Utah early this month for modeling. Along the way I got a few photos here and there. I complain a lot about the dryness out there. I find it so uncomfortable though. Although it is something I could probably get use to with more lotion and a nasal spray. 

The rocks are impressive. I think the pink and purple tones are what get to me the most. Kristy Jessica (another model) and I drove around with a photographer and his assistant along the border of Arizona and Utah. Kristy lives out in that area, traveling and discovering from her RV. So she found all these spots just off the beaten path. They were really nice too. I learned to find locations from an ex of mine, and expanded my abilities through practice. Some searching comes from driving around and seeing what you come by when you take a strange road and walk an empty property or strange path. Some can come from searchng through the internet or maps to see if someone has blogged about something, recorded an unassuming trail, etc. Then there is instagram and Pinterest. Tell social media a city and see if anyone has posted about somewhere interesting. Sometimes they will.  There are a lot of ways to find a beautiful place just near home. But it takes time, mistakes, and dedication.

This month I'm doing my own exploring near Chattanooga. I might go towards Alabama one day and then towards North Carolina the next. Walk along some random paths and risk finding nothing. But knowing what isn't there is a good way to avoid wondering what I'm missing. In the southeast, trees make every spot a secret hid away. You don't know what you're missing 20 feet away from you until you've pushed away the leaves. Even in Fall and winter our trees are hardly bare. Southwest was interesting. Just becuase you could see for miles didn't mean you could see every cave, canyon, and feature. The dirt blends together and the sun is so bright during the day every spot looks the same, losing all its dimensions. Then you walk a trail and realize every hole and wall makes part of a slot canyon. I imagine how monsoons made these. The water must've been strong and there had to be so much of it. Places that once had water but are so dry it's hard to imagine, haunt me a bit. How eery to notice something that is missing. It's an experience I don't get in the Southeast. Instead the Southeast is always alive and growing. I can return to the same spot in a month and the whole area is different. All the plants grow fast and the trees crash down and the water carries what was there away so more plants will grow. Sometimes a river flows in one direction and the next year its forged a new path. 

Every minute I spend in nature, its still working on itself, even when I can't see it. I relate to that. We all likely do. Whether people see it or not, day to day or year to year, we're growing up and wiser. I couldn't recognize myself 5 years ago and I don't anticipate predicting myself in 5 years from now. Like those rivers, I forge a path now, but maybe I'll dig in deeper or maybe I'll find the rocks more forgiving in another direction.