The Trail to Angel's Landing

DISCLAIMER: This item may have been submitted in response to a school assignment prompt. See Linked Data.

There are few ways to describe the events of 2020 other than chaotic. The vast, sweeping changes that occurred left many confused and grasping, often in desperation. Meanwhile, 2021 was a mixed follow-up for a year where much remained the same, but travel restrictions began to lift. Seeing this window of opportunity, four friends and I leaped at it. We planned a weeklong trip to Zion National Park and on the first day, we headed for Angel's Landing. The situation around the pandemic resulted in a kind of claustrophobia that superimposed a hyperawareness of personal space. For many, where six feet distance apart was not just a courtesy in some establishments, but a rule that was often enforced. This condition of anxiety or even fear of contracting COVID-19 from another person in the limited size of restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores was easily felt. This kind of spatial awareness bled into one's perception so deeply that it might be retroactive. While watching a pre-pandemic movie with a shot of a crowd, the thoughts would intrude, "Where are everyone's masks?" or "Why is everyone standing so close together." Southern Utah is a great expanse of mesas, mountains, and bluffs under a rolling sky. Zion reflects this in the great size of the rock formations and the verdant greenery accompanying it. The contrast in scale highlights the simple fact that getting up to the tallest point of Angel's Landing is an exercise of walking upwards at steep inclines, often with other people in front of you, creating a line. Maybe it was the change in setting, but for a while, it was as if the pandemic was left behind. Everyone still brought masks, wore masks in crowded environments, and used hand sanitizer but the anxiety was not there. It appeared to be the common rule that the other tourists had agreed to. Replacing the fear was a determination to get to the highest point of the trails and photograph the scope of it all. It was only the first day of the trip and I had already been astounded.

July 23, 2021

Self

Andrew Ground

HST643

Arizona State University

Photograph

English Travel

English Environment & Landscape

English Public Space

Zion National Park

Utah

spatial awareness

mask

Angel's Landing

trail

Arizona State University

HST643

Spring B Session 2024

History of Tourism

COVID19

Utah

Zion

03/14/2024

03/20/2024

07/23/2021