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What Are Your Natural Cathedrals?
On Saturday night I took the picture above, showing the eastern slope of the Teton Mountains towering over the Snake River in Jackson, Wyoming. I was on one of my regular cross-country jaunts from Nashville to Los Angeles. Sure, Wyoming isn’t generally on that route but, c’mon, look at the picture — you’re going to go out of your way for that.
I can’t quite put into words what I experience every time I stand at that spot. It’s something akin, I suppose, to what Maslow described as a “peak experience.” Jackson Hole is one of a handful of spots that I regard as natural cathedrals — places that are overawing in their aesthetic majesty.
Here’s my question for Ricochet members: what sites do you regard with a similar sense of breathlessness? And — need I say it? — photos please.
Published in General
Hey, I know that spot.
I’ve lived with Yosemite practically in my backyard for the last 25 years and just visited for the first time a week ago. What an idiot I was. It was so incredibly beautiful and jaw-droppingly awesome. We are already making plans for our next trip.
Mt. Whitney (14,508′), tallest point in the contiguous U.S.
6:00am from Consolation Lake. Resting at 12,040′ before our final ascent. The magical few moments during the Alpenglow.
The Königsee in Bavaria is a cathedral for me.
Gray’s Beach and all of Cape Cod in winter (photograph by my photographer-son Ben):
Just posted this a few days ago. I’d consider the third picture to be applicable too.
Mt. Chocura in NH. Note: this is a bad picture.
More of a chapel than a cathedral, but a transcendental location all the same:
Tahoe’s North Shore, from the Rim Trail (sadly, I had to steal this picture from someone else; why didn’t I take my camera with me?)
I heard an unforgettable sermon a few years ago. The priest was talking about the importance of the place, the physical place, in which a person first feels the presence of God nearby.
As he went on, he tied this to the closure of many small neighborhood parishes in Boston and Cambridge in the early 2000s. Parishioners were holding sit-ins, and he was sympathetic.
For me, that has been Cape Cod. I moved here after losing a couple of dear friends to cancer. Now it is the only place that feels right to me.
Beaver Lake, Marble, Colorado with Raspberry Ridge in background.
And, for a little home town pride, the summit of Mt. Young on San Juan Island in Washington State.
Bryce
Lake Superior. Anytime.
Packed away somewhere are a few shots of the Carson Canyon, Hope Valley and some of the landscape just south of Lake Tahoe. The other place I mentioned in a piece called “Do You Have A Place?” on Ricochet was Monitor Pass which you can read here.
While in England, I was most impressed with the Lake District and in particular Langsdale. Here I am looking down on the Langsdale Valley.
Top of the North American Rockies. The summit at Mt. Elbert 14,440′.
Great spot.
Sometimes I have to travel.
Sometimes I don’t.
If you will forgive me: my budding collection.
Not a cathedral or chapel, maybe just an alcove. But this is the view off my apartment balcony in the summer.
Carlsbad Caverns, NM.
My thoughts exactly. Cathedrals are too crowded.
I’ve recently discovered the Endless Mountain/Pine River Gorge (aka the Grand Canyon of PA) region of Pennsylvania:
Upper Missouri Breaks: Montana
I spent days and days hunting in the Breaks when I was a kid.
Nature is disgusting and its veneration is a form of idolatry. There I have said it.
Its beauty and majesty is an illusion created by lack of proximity. We think these places ideal because we do not have to live in them. Those mountains, forests, deserts, are merciless slaughter chambers where lowly creatures eke out the barest of existences.
The best nature is a manicured one. Which is to say one that has been tamed by man and properly arranged.
The fjord by my childhood home. I learned how to swim here, and my youngest son is seen in this very picture, attempting to do the same.
It’s idolatry to adore God’s creation?
Coyote Mountains are in southern California’s Mohave Desert. This movie doesn’t do it complete justice but it is close. It is taken from a shorter peak just to the north of Carrizo peak, the tallest in this small range. Incidentally, the Carrizo Impact Area, used for areal bombardment training in WWII and the Korean War, is right next door. The badlands around here do not match the Arizona and Utah glories, but they have their own primordial charms. Biggest mud cave system in the world, I believe; lots of fossils; weird rock formations.
Just next door is Carrizo Peak. It is a place of tiny life and big desolation.
Gosh you guys have a lot of sweeping majestic photos. My wife and I just visited my parents up in Island Park, Idaho. Sadly we didn’t have time to go into the nearby Yellowstone National Park (which I’d consider my natural cathedral), but we did ascend Sawtell Peak and I finally figured out the panorama assist feature on my camera. So here’s the view: