Delicate Arch, Arches National Park. (Photo: National Park Service)

Soon after I settled in New Mexico I would drive the 600-mile journey to visit my parents in Salt Lake City, once every year. It was a long way, especially when I was driving alone. But I relishedthe dry forested highlands and the 360-degreelandscapes with their wind-sculpted sandstone outcroppings, mesas, and buttes. Let me share with you the time when, while returning to Albuquerque, I turned off at the signpost to Arches...