black canyon

The snow started as a rumor in the wind, bright specks drifting sideways across the rim, as if someone sifted sugar over a dark cake and then wandered off to watch. We had just wrapped up a long stint of archaeological fieldwork in Delta, Colorado, feeling chilled but content, and slipped away after the project was done for a half-day to Black Canyon National Park in Colorado before trekking home to Washington State. That first look over the edge made my stomach drop in the best possible way, like a roller coaster that never quite ends.