Thoreau

On this day two hundred years ago Henry David Thoreau was born.

For myself and my family, this was the first day of a week's vacation and a travel day. From Northfield to Minneapolis to Las Vegas to Zion National Park, such distance in so little time (1,500 miles in 12 hours) is disorienting. Thoreau, who certainly enjoyed travel, preferred walking and was critical of the material and moral costs involved in greater journeys. In Walden he writes, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us."

We enter Zion National Park just before sunset. At the visitor center we walk the beginning of The Watchman Trail. Along the trail, which follows the Virgin River, we encounter a number of very large Desert Stink Beetles. When disturbed by our passing to close, the beetles performed their characteristic headstands, a defensive posture for a stink beetle that can spray a foul liquid at an attacker.

Posted on July 13, 2017 04:24 AM by