Binders Begone!

Today I was back at my "get-rid-of-photo-albums" mission. I picked, at random, one binder off the wall of shelves which turned out to be Winter-Spring of 1996...and was instantly down the memory-lane rabbit hole! 

The binder was full of photos of my Christmas and March school-break vacations in Arizona that year visiting my parents who wintered there. My favourite section of the binder featured a road trip I had taken my parents on. I had wanted to show them some of my favourite haunts in AZ and Utah that I was always talking about....Grand Canyon, Navajo Nation, Muleshoe Bend near Page, Lake Powell, Zion NP and, my special treat for Dad....Wire Pass/Buckskin Gulch in the Paria Canyon- Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area which is on the Utah side of the AZ-Utah border. 

The hike through that slot canyon is stunning. I had done the hike with a friend on one of my southwest adventures and had been totally and  absolutely gob-smacked! My Dad loved to get out in the desert and explore new areas and whenever I was visiting them in Arizona, we would go on hikes in the Superstition Mountains and he loved that, but this hike was special; it was his first slot canyon! (extra) and he was thrilled! 

When Dad was terminally ill, he used to browse through all our photo albums of those days and comment upon what a good life he had had...  and I know that that hike was one of his favourite memories....

It can be a tedious task clearing out those albums and labeling each photo lest some relative in the future might wonder who that person was and when and where the picture was taken, but the memories it evokes make it all worthwhile...and yes..it also frees up more open shelf space!  For other things!