WHEELS THROUGH THE WEST

Nowhere on Earth's surface does Nature paint with more vivid colors, erect and mould on a more grandiose scale than in our Southwest. To describe the scenic wonders of this area would be a puny gesture. How can mortal man with his grimy ink pots catch the mood and the grandeur and the rugged nobility of Time's ageless carvings? Can cold words on cold paper, guided by man's narrow vision and narrower intellect, portray the warmth, the depth, the all-encompassing, the all-powerful message written in stone by the mad winds, the riotous storms and changing seasons of the tired Centuries, punctuated by the sardonic laughter of a bright Sun, whose aeons are but a fleeting paragraph scrawled in the Dust? We can only point to these temples of time and the river in awe and reverent silence. How diaphanous and evanescent, how unimportant the events of our life and times, when we stand before these pillars of Forever! The headlines of our day fade into nothing when viewed in surroundings which bear in bold outline a million years of History's story. It is good for the soul to pause occasionally and give heed to these sermons in colored stone, listen to the gentle symphonies of wind mellowed by the blue sky and bright sunshine, or shiver in the wild cacophony of Storm in these cathedrals of Agelessness.

How amusing it must be to Nature, and her faithful servants, Time and the Weather, to view man's monument to Tomorrow and his tribute to the Past and Present on either side of this continent! We can imagine the raucous laughter and high mirth as Nature views these piles of glass, iron and concrete. "I have builded and destroyed for fifty million years. I will build and destroy long after your puny fairs and expositions have vanished into dust and forgetfulness. Only I can tell of Past; only I build for Tomorrow."

To point your way through our Southwest we present eight southwestern portraits for your consideration. The illustrations are by Lillian Wilhelm Smith and George Elbert Burr from two books of verse by Lou Ella Archer: "Canyon Shadows," and "Sonnets to the Southwest," used gratefully by Arizona Highways with permission of Mrs. Archer. The captions in verse are from her sonnets.

Grand Canyon, Beta-ta-kin, Canyon de Chelly and the desert scene show Nature's handiwork in Arizona. Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion's Temple of Sinawava are in southern Utah and the majestic Enchanted Mesa is in eastern New Mexico.

These are all of easy access to the traveler, and they represent a small portion of the scenic jewels of the southwest that will bring wheels through the west this summer. R. C.