- by, Anne Jakle 

The first non-natives who sought out Rainbow Bridge were driven primarily by quests for adventure and notoriety; though some may have had knowledge beforehand that a number of Native American tribes held the site sacred, its fabled spiritual significance certainly didn’t apply to their God.
 
It is noteworthy, then, that references to an inexplicable power, presence, spirituality, or nameless force permeate nearly every written account passed on from early explorers, and each man in his writing grapples for words to explain this thing that moved him, stunned him, and imprinted itself upon his memory. There is no doubt that Rainbow Bridge’s impressive span, which could easily clear the dome of the Capitol Building, would inspire awe in even the most hard-to-impress visitor.  But its draw goes beyond size or science, and everyone from United States presidents to the ancestral Puebloan Native Americans have noticed a sense of sacredness that enshrouds the Bridge, surrounding maze of sandstone canyons, springs, and watchful Navajo Mountain. Malcom Cummings, who accompanied his father on the Cummings-Douglass expedition to Rainbow Bridge that made the first Anglo documented discovery in 1909, is the first to attempt to put the place’s spirit into words, though he doesn’t get very far.  He writes, “It [Rainbow Bridge] stands there defying time, the elements, and man... It is beyond words.”  In 1923, Charles L. Bernheimer tries again to describe the feeling he experienced there in a National Geographic article: “…permeating all, there is a sense of a physical lonesomeness, mingled with an almost constant feeling of the presence of the creator. ”Along with references to “the creator,” speechlessness and lack of rational explanation or quantifiable description is a recurring theme amongst visitors to the Bridge and surrounding Navajo Mountain area. “Nonnezoshe [Rainbow Bridge] awes one into silence,” wrote James Babbit in 1927.  “I don’t know why, but it does.  Perhaps one is impressed there, as in other rare corners of the world, with the near presence of the Master Builder.”  Karla VanderZanden, director of Canyonlands Field Institute (CFI), who has been running trips along the Rainbow Trail to the Bridge since 1988, likened her experience there to falling in love: romance, euphoria, butterflies in the stomach.

Like many before, Ed Kornbrath, CFI participant and webmaster, couldn’t put into words the meaning of the place.  “It brought out emotions—I don’t know why,” he said.  “A lump rose in my throat; there's a spirituality that somehow resides within this landscape.”

One Heck of a Hike - by Doug Haag

If this sounds interesting to you, contact:  Canyonlands Field Institute, PO Box 68, Moab, Utah 84532; ph: 435-259-7750; website:  www.canyonlandsfieldinst.org

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