Window Rock

Note: I was asked to write a reflection of one of the events during my Alternate Spring Break experience. I chose Window Rock and this was what I wrote.

After a hard day’s of work and accumulated lack of sleep, I wasn’t really interested in the field trip to window rock. What could be so interesting about this place? I just want to have dinner and go and sleep! That was the only thought that my poor tired brain could muster that day. But when we first got a glimpse of the magnificent view of the amazing “hole” in the middle of a big huge rock mountain, I knew that I was the luckiest girl ever!




First off, coming from Malaysia, I never thought I would ever be able to witness a scene like this. Malaysia is a tropical country with green mountains everywhere, no where can you see rows and rows of orange, brownish rocks. Nature is such a beautiful creation. How can a big huge mountain have a “hole” in the middle? I’m still reeling in shock at nature’s beauty!




How lucky we are as human beings to be able to enjoy something like that!




Obviously every one of us was busy taking tons and tons of pictures to keep as memories and also to brag to others where we went during our spring break. But halfway through our photo taking pictures, Jay-R suddenly called on to us to move along, that we have other places to go. Where can we go again? My complaining self started to mumble again. I want to take more pictures! The sun is going down! But obviously I did not want to be left behind so I tag along with the group. We walked along a few rows of houses (and a lot of rubbish!) and finally reach an “entrance” where we started to climb the mountain!

Wait a minute!

Look how steep it was further up!

“Are we going to climb this huge rock?” I thought. This is definitely going to be fun! I wonder if we would climb till we can peak through the “hole”. Like playing hide and seek? So, with one hand carrying my camera, I started to make my way through trekking through the mountain. Initially, it wasn’t that big a deal and I started to take my time, taking gazillion pictures along the way. But suddenly, we reached this super steep 45 degrees mountain that we needed to climb to get to the destination that we were supposed to go (wherever that was supposed to be!). I looked up and my knees started to feel soft! Can anyone actually climb that? I started to take huge deep breaths! But seeing everyone reaching the top like little monkeys, I too wanted to follow them. Thankfully, Jullian was lagging behind too and he started to guide me up. He took over my gigantic bulky camera (Thank you so much!), which I was so worried it would drop on the hard rock and break to smithereens! It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be as we ascended up the steep rock mountain. Now all that I was worried about is how we would go down later.






The view there was magnificent. The sun was slowly going down so the sky had this soft dark orange light surrounding it. We could see the houses below and every where around us was orange brown rock. Not to mention sand, cactuses, and weird looking interesting green plants. We reached the window rock in a few minutes and again, the view was breathtaking. This time, we were on the other side of the “hole” and it was pretty amazing just standing there sucking in the beauty. We took a group photo (as usual!) and started to descend down.




What happened next will always stay in my mind forever. While we were making our way down, it started to snow. First it was light snow, and I started to try and catch it on film. But after that, it started to pour and the view was absolutely amazing.





I can’t even describe the beauty of it.


Pictures just don't justify it.



This trip was the first time that I got to witness snow and though I saw snow the second day we were here, to be standing in the midst of wilderness, having the sound of nature enveloped you, is a whole new feeling altogether. I just wanted to stand there forever and just absorb this moment as much as I can and engrained it in my bank of memories forever! I was the last one in the group as I kept trying to take as many pictures as possible. Therefore, no one was behind me, making me feel like I was the only person in the world. Standing there, taking in the beauty that was happening beside me is the bestest feeling anyone can ever get. I so want climb the Himalayas now (Yeah right!) The snow started to pour and pour and pour and surprisingly, I didn’t feel as cold as I thought it would be. The trip down wasn’t as hard to because Jay-R, the smart and kind guy he is, took another route and we didn’t need to “slide” down the 45 degrees mountain. Did I mention again how great Jay-R is?

Before the start of this trip, someone asked me whether I saw snow before and when I mentioned I didn’t, and asked how it feels like to witness snow, the person had this awed, faraway look on his face, and told me witnessing snow is the most beautiful thing in the world. One that he never gets tired witnessing. I absolutely agree with that.




I am the luckiest girl in the whole world!