Nevada

I've had the most amazing week and a half- full of new memories, new friends, and a lot of relaxation. So much so, in fact, that I will probably have to space it out over a few posts. I've had so many ideas for blog posts that it is overwhelming, though I have yet to wisen up and write them down. Perhaps that will be my New Years resolution.
While it is easy and tempting to bore you all with the most minut details of my vacation, I suppose I shall only scratch the surface and tell you my favorite parts of California and all of the other states we passed through. (I can't do Idaho yet because I haven't left!)

While it's still fresh in my mind, I shall speak of Nevada. As I drove through this state, I was in awe of the landscape. Mountains stood at heights I had never fathomed- splashed with crimson and scarlet hues that I had never seen before. I had once believed that for a mountain to be beautiful it must be a host to a multitude of plants, but my naivety was tossed aside.  Plants would only hide minerals of a thousand colors, along with the rock formations that looked like martian cities from afar. The rock itself was porous,  and many of the canyon walls were littered with tiny holes. I imagined that on a rare rainy day, the water would seep from these holes and give the impression that the mountain itself was weeping. For a place with so little life, it was remarkably alive.
Wildly alive. A living, breathing organism that few people dared to approach, fearing the loss of limb or sanity. Even the Hoover Dam could not tame her. It could not take away her beauty, for in a few hundred years, the dam may fall, but the mountains will still stand. Impervious. Perhaps pridefully mocking us. Fearing only the jade water, that would slowly carve them away over eons. Miles away from the nearest the city, the sky shone a raw, vibrant shade of blue. It was wonderful and terrible to behold. A creative spirit can find rest there.

The whole of wild Nevada was its own canvas. A canvas that God had carefully and purposely painted with colors that can never be reproduced by mere mortals. A canvas that I could only dream of copying. To draw inspiration from such intricate yet simple place is a unique sense of worship that only an artist can appreciate. In terms of landscape, this state was by far the most untamed, lovely creature I have ever seen.