hiking to salvation

All it took was a single picture from a total stranger with the caption “hiking to salvation” that started my wanderlust.

I was in the great Rocky Mountains of Colorado, searching for the Chapel on the Rock. My pilgrimage was full of it’s own trials, dead end paths and many wrong turns.

Just like life itself. All that greeted me were crystal clear lakes and a lone goose enjoying a morning bath.

I’d given up trying to find this place and headed up the road hoping I’d see a new inspiration, when it appeared before me.

Monsignor Joseph Bosetti came across this large rock formation in 1916 while trying to find the impact site from a falling star. The biblical phrase “upon this rock I will build my church” became a realization to his religious nature. In 1936, with the help of some philanthropists and a Denver architect, his church was completed.

On the hillside above the church, Christ the Redeemer oversees the valley. I make my way up the mountain.

Tributes to loved ones lost are scattered along the way. I think of my own lost loves in a peaceful and melancholy state of calm.

After a spell at the top with the picturesque figure, I make my way back down, find a quiet stream, and enjoy the sounds of Spring in the mountains of Allen’s park.