Island in the Sky

This was taken from the top of the mesa called “Island in the Sky” in Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah. The trail, called “Shafer Trail,” leads in series of switchbacks down the face of a near vertical cliff to Shafer Canyon, approximately 1000 ft. below. As we were slowly making our way down down, locked up in first gear 4x4, we met some pilgrim in a Hyundai Elantra fighting his way to the top. Must have been a rental, for no one would abuse their own vehicle like that! There was also a German tourist and his wife in an SUV, frozen in fear about three-quarters of the way up the trail. When I made a comment to him that it was a pretty rough trail, he looked wide-eyed at me and said, “It’s getting vorse!”

Fred Paget, photographer