There’s something mysterious about mirrors & reflective surfaces, isn’t there? I mean, the story of Narcissus (gazing upon his reflection in a pool of water only to eventually drown admiring himself) certainly acts as a cautionary tale & that of the mirroring shield that caused Medusa to look upon her own visage & turn to stone. These aren’t happy stories. Yet, we are often compelled to “reflect” upon ourselves quite a bit if we want to remain mentally healthy, despite such warnings in myth. As an academic dean overseeing online curriculum design at major higher ed institutions, I often saw instructional designers assigning a “reflection” assignment in coursework as a way of urging students to self-inventory & examine what they’d learned over a term or semester. Given my appreciation of life coaching & therapeutic support, I may have a personal bias in believing self-reflection to be a positive thing, certainly in psychological development. I comically think of the way my toddler son has been fascinated with mirrors or selfies on phones or tablets, even since a newborn, & how that reflection of self acts as a mental milestone for the emerging psyche for babies. This brings to mind that test from the 1970s where infants & toddlers were shown their reflections with lipstick on their noses as a way to determine consciousness of self.

So much lore surrounds the image of the “looking-glass” or mirrors in myth, fairy tales, & enduring literature that mirrored reflection has become a motif or symbol. Who can forget, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” In the more modern Harry Potter series, we see the Pensieve (a mirror-like pool that reflects memories to the observer), a portmanteau term that uses the word “pensive” (lost in thought) combined with “sieve” (used to strain substance from liquid) as a powerful tool of reflective observation. Human-made mirrors don’t often signify something positive–think of distorted images in houses of mirrors at carnivals; yet, in Nature, we tend to see still water as a calming element.

Two weekends ago, I had the good fortune to take a Sunday drive up towards the Wyoming border at the northeast corner of Utah, passing through the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. At its summit, the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway will bring you up to 10,687 feet in altitude, whereupon you start to descend down towards Mirror Lake. The banner image at the top of this blog post & the two images directly above this paragraph depict Mirror Lake, which offers a cool 63-degree temperature weather (even while the Salt Lake Valley can be scorching at 96 degrees at the same time). You can steadily track the temperature’s drop as you pass through forest & climb up the altitudes in a vehicle. Admittedly, I wouldn’t have believed that there would have been such a notable difference to the tune of over 30 degrees between SLC & Mirror Lake, but there it was, recorded for me to see with my own eyes. And you could definitely feel that temperature drop, with the sunroof & windows of the SUV opened so I could take better pictures. Even the little one didn’t mind the windows open & the wind passing through (he’s a Libra, an air sign like his mom, & we adore wind & breezes), given the pleasant temperatures & the spicy scent of pine, moss, & composting leaves that filled the air. He delighted in the wind, excitedly throwing his hands up in the air & vocalizing in his own garbled language to himself.

For me, summer just isn’t summer without such forest & woods to enjoy. Maybe it’s the Girl Scout that remains in me, from years as a camper in Vermont & as a unit leader at day camps in the NH Lakes Region, but I still feel that need to be in the forest in order to experience a true summer day. Forest & lake = summer for me. There’s nothing like it. (Well, I do adore the ocean & Rockport, but you can read about that in other posts.)

 

So, as I passed through the different park campgrounds, I felt amazed to see how many families were gathered around the lake & or in the lower vales, as the camping areas were all packed full of people. There were no open lots to be seen or found. From RVs & Airstream cabins to tents ranging in all kinds of shapes & sizes, families were enjoying the National parks, swimming or kayaking or lounging near the water’s edge. There were even small patches of snow still observable in the higher altitudes, refusing to melt, which explained the temperature drop so dramatically experienced the further we drove into the Uinta Mountains. Even the kinds of rock seen in the peaks & cliffs differed greatly from the White Mountains in NH or the Green Mountains in VT I’d known so well, from when I’d usually venture during summer months as a teen or young adult. Here, in Utah, various hues of red, ocher, & bone-white appeared above rather than the granite gray streaked with white quartz I’d been used to seeing. The higher altitude could also be evidenced in its effect on the trees, in dwarfed heights, less deciduous trees, & more evergreens sparsely arranged. Many trees were remained stripped bare, likely due to the snow that had refused to melt.

The final thawing would likely take more time, so I imagined that the water in the lake must have been pretty cold–as most people were kayaking & not swimming.

Of course, many Sunday drives are yet to come, as I have countless places in mind yet to explore. For example, I’m eager & excited to venture up towards the Idaho border, as the Golden Spike Historic Site can be visited on the way. There’s such lore from the Transcontinental Railroad that I’m tempted to pull out my vintage 19th Century photography books of the Old West with me, filled with images of the Westward Expansion that carved through mountain ranges & made locomotive travel possible. When passing through the Uinta & Wasatch Mountains on paved roads, I often think about the Conestoga wagons that had to create paths through the wilderness & I can’t even fathom their hardships. I mean, any kid from the 1980s can appreciate the video game The Oregon Trail & the perils of dysentery. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, one of my colleagues is an actual descendant from the Donner Party (a grisly tale that haunts the modern imagination still), & with films like The Revenant or shows like The Frontier we still try to approximate those dangerous experiences in some imagined form. The idea of exploring more of Utah & heading into nearby states renews my spirits.

It’s a victory for me to make the time for Nature, to allow myself to enjoy the wilderness. Hopefully, my writing & photographs will help other introverts with anxiety to push through fear or apathy to take some chances. Beauty awaits & we have so little time to enjoy it, given our brief lives. We need to make the most of Nature when we can, when we have health & the physical faculty to enjoy something bigger. That something bigger is what gives us & our brief lives meaning, so we need to reflect on that. See that truth. May you find a Mirror Lake to show you such meaning, too.