There is an upside to pollution. We think of pollution as a destructive and negative force. However, there is always an upside to devastation. For pollution that upside is fabulous sunsets and sunrises. When smoke blankets the rim of the Canyon, the sun becomes a mutted red ball as it sets. You can look directly in the face of the sun and see only a tamed rubber ball.

Garbage, the human detritus, is also undescribably disgusting in a wilderness setting. Yet, garbage saved my life. The first time I hiked down to Supai, a town on the Havasupai Indian Reservation and gateway to three magnificent canyon waterfalls, I did not know which way to turn when I intersected Havasu canyon. I didn’t have my map. I saw the remains of a sign across the Canyon and went to it. There was a trail leading away from that sign, which had no writting left on it. I started up the trail, but quickly realized that I was missing something — the garbage that I had continually seen on the track from the trail head.

I returned to the mouth of the Canyon and proceeded the other direction, immediately encountering more garbage. Within 100 feet of the Canyon intersection, I found a sign hidden behind some bushes and pointing forward toward the village of Supai.

It is possible in many cases to find good hidden among the bad if we only look for it.

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