The Chains That Free Us

Hidden Canyon Trail in Zion National Park, Utah (USA)

Copyright © 2017 by Cindy L. Sheppard. All rights reserved.

Publisher’s Notes:

1. The photograph above was the visual prompt for our recent ekphrastic competition, The Chains Writing Challenge. Image is reproduced here with photographer’s permission.

2. To learn more about those chains anchored above thousand-foot drop-offs, see Hidden Canyon in Zion National Park (hikespeak), and Favorite Hikes: Hidden Canyon (the latter links to Zion-National-Park.org, even though the logo at the site refers to “Zion National-Park.com”).

Cindy L. Sheppard

retired five years ago after working for three decades at a public-utilities company. She always enjoyed traveling, when she could arrange time off that is. After retiring, she relaxed for a while and then rewarded herself for all those years of service by taking an extended road trip with her best friend. They departed the east coast of the U.S. in June 2017 to visit, camp, and hike in more than 60 midwestern and western national parks and monuments. It was quite the adventure for Ms. Sheppard, including these highlights:

Hiking in hellish heat and through varied terrain, and scaling peaks in the Tetons, Sierra Nevadas, and other ranges

Losing her footing early in the trip and falling into the glacier-fed, rushing waters of Avalanche Creek, where she was drowning until three angels in the guise of kindly strangers rescued her (and yes, she has scars as souvenirs)

Fulfilling a lifelong dream of seeing moose and, better yet, of being surrounded by, mustangs in the wild—not to mention the redwoods in California!

Shooting many thousands of images with a brand new camera, another well-deserved retirement gift

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ [Geothermal], three photographs shot by Ms. Sheppard during her 2017 road trip, published in Issue 4 of MacQ

⚡ Several of Ms. Sheppard’s photographs from previous travels illustrate four stories in Issues 6 and 8 of Serving House Journal (for example, two shots in “Fighting Toads”).

⚡ Three of her experimental night shots appear in Issue 2 of KYSO Flash.

⚡ And two of her “Queen of the Night” photographs appear in Volume 1 of the KYSO Flash Anthology (2014), with one of them illuminating the front cover.