Virgin Stones, Zion National Park

Along the wild washes raging virginlike through narrows, past steep walls dripping with centuries of moisture, cutting relentlessly toward arid plains, the currents of this river uncover millennia of remembrance. Once embedded in ancient seas, once boulders fallen from ridges pushing upward, once immovable masses blocking gravity’s watery inclinations, the stones bordering the river’s path pause here now as little more than shining pebbles. Their voices speak a wisdom we can only imagine. Their songs echo beyond the melodies of river, of songbirds, of hikers whistling their way to mountaintop conquests. ♨