In my opinion, winter hikes seem to hold a certain magic. As someone who usually despises the snow, one day I was feeling pulled to a snowy trail. I have been feeling incredibly lost as of late. I have felt uninspired by the town I live in and was unsure how to remedy this. I have been feeling as though I have been suffocating within the life that I am living, and have been unsure where to go in order to get out of those feelings. On a day that seemed particularly mundane, I decided to go to the mountains.

I started driving up the mountainous switchbacks unsure whether or not I would be blocked by the snow. Eventually I turned on the dirt road and found my way to a trailhead I had been to so many times before. I hit the quiet trail, and all I could hear was the subtle crush of the snow beneath my feet. It felt as though I was in a snow globe, which was truly magical. I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go, but as soon as I started walking, my mind started to calm. I started to walk down this snowy switchback to get to a waterfall that I had an inkling would be frozen beautifully. The trail was completely silent. All of a sudden, as I was walking I was overcome with an immense amount of gratitude. I couldn’t help but have feelings flood into me about why I wanted to exist in this world. I got to the creek and saw these gorgeous bits of nature, and I had all to myself in the at moment. It felt special.

It is so easy to take the place you live for granted, even when it is a place like Moab. It is easy to yearn for something different. Something new, something that could be considered more exciting. This simple hike, however, made me reconnect with the love I had for this town. I realized that having accessibility to something that beautiful truly is something I crave. I have come to realize that sometimes there is a magic within simplicity. There’s a magic in having roots. There is a magic in recognizing the beauty in your home. You shouldn’t run every time you become content or complacent. Sometimes all you need to do is go on a winter hike to recognize the beauty in complacency, and for that I am grateful.