‘96’ upside down is . . . 96. Put down that dirty mind! 96 is also the designation of a BLM road a few miles east of Hall’s Crossing at Lake Powell. You access 96 off of Utah Highway 276.
You’ll drive down to Hall’s Crossing on July4th, and find the lakeside campsite deserted because you’re […]
The off-white of bone hangs from gray limbs, undulating like torn spider silk on bitter winds. Riled by the wind, clumps of spongy snow burden the evergreens. I hike the South Rim Trail from Maricopa Point to Mohave Point. I encounter no one. The usual quiet is sewn in and doubled by the insulating snow. […]
The colors have withdrawn themselves. The off-white of bone hangs from gray limbs, undulating like torn spider silk on bitter winds. Riled by the wind, clumps of spongy snow burden the evergreens. I hike the Rim Trail along the Grand Canyon, from Maricopa Point to Mohave Point. I encounter no one. The usual quiet is […]
I never forget the grueling tedium of that last 4.5 miles from Indian Gardens to the South Rim of Grand Canyon. It’s a slog. One foot in front of the other.
“Don’t look down,” we’re often admonished.
I say: “Don’t look up.” Don’t glance up to see the near vertical climb of that last couple thousand feet. […]
I dangle from an overlook, hanging over the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers in Canyonlands. It is de-peopled and treeless, visited by wind alone.
The wind dies. The sun stops in its arc and holds itself in place. The La Sal Mountains, still snow-capped in June, lay silent to the east. Clouds pour up […]
Snowfall in Zion softens the hard ledges of cliffs, turns the shrieks of stellar jays into mere chirps. Zion is more intimate than Grand Canyon or Canyonlands. The canyons tends to be narrow, and Zion Valley, carved by the Virgin River, is sheltered by sheer canyon walls. The world scales down here. From a cliff […]
Love gives without need for return. In its largess, it teaches me. To be a Love giver, without worrying about the consequences, without fear for how that Love is received, or whether it’s received at all. For all Love can do is offer its incorrigible magnitude. Whether I’m in a place to receive It isn’t […]
On Highway 64 just west of Cameron, AZ. To the south, the sun wrestles through mixed skies to highlight again the everlasting beacons, the San Francisco Peaks. To the north, storm-darkened escarpments brood a monolithic blue. On both sides of the highway, the land dissolves into a Martian jumble of orange and pink, rust and […]
Take Temple Junction/Goblin Valley Road to Temple-Junction-to-Hidden-Splendor-Road (that’s all one name). Keep driving (or walking, as I did), for about 1 ½ to 2 miles. The pavement will end, but you’ll keep walking. You’ll track Temple Wash, a deep and ruddy affair, for awhile on the right. You will pass a rusted sedan the same […]
Been awhile since I’ve written one of these. Let’s see how it flows.
THE DRAINING OF LAKE POWELL
Today, we tour the feeder canyons which sidle in to Lake Powell. Powell, by the way, is whittled back down to the old river channel of the Colorado it used to be at Hite Crossing. A few weeks back, […]
