Here, you’ll find unfortunately true tales of an accidental naturalist’s misadventures in the wild, as well as shorter, inspirational reflections of nature
Oh shit! Did you put out the campfire?
A lot is happening right now: Covid. Stock market collapse. World War. Political instability. You could be forgiven for concluding that the world is at an end. There are certainly enough websites out there that are saying that.
People have been predicting The End since the beginning. […]
Like Yale Forestall, the hero in The Dirt, a novel of mainstream-contemporary fiction, I live on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, which means I’m on the verge of red rock country. While I love the mountains which I’m also perched on the flanks of, a slight favorite is the high desert of southeast Utah. […]
Cedar Breaks
Campsite envy is a horrible disease, a pernicious gangrene of the soul. I’m on Gooseberry Mesa, a couple miles from Smithsonian Butte. It’s the backdoor to Zion NP. I drive with a few miles of red dust as my rooster’s tail to find the perfect spot, only to see someone snap up […]
North Rim Vista
Amazing how the cosmos cosmosizes. I wonder to the wind and sky where I should end up today, after my few days at Parrisawampitts. When I get back to camp, two hunters drive up.
“I’ve been thinking about heading to Indian Hollow,” I say.
“Oh, Indian Hollow’s nothin’. It’s not even on the […]
After a breakfast of cold oats and an orange, I take Highway 95 a few miles to Rec Road 633, which comes in on the north between the Colorado and Dirty Devil rivers. This crimson track traces around the base of a thin rock wall decaying into fins. I ride the red, flakey shale for […]
I reach camp. The backpackers parked about a mile north have gone. Now, I’m truly alone at the end of this road. I gorge on two cans of cold tuna and a huge bag of toffee cashews. As an afterthought, I decide to check the weather. The forecasts have worsened. Rain all night. Thunder and […]
At day’s end, I hike back toward camp, down the red clay of Hole-in-the-Rock Road. Another storm rolls off the Straight Cliffs which loom in the west, taking up half the sky. Lightning strikes to the south along a flat expanse of rangeland dotted with sage. I climb down to a low spot. Black veils […]
Where would you hide something from the public?
I’d moved out to the Four Corners so I could savor the solitude, 11 miles from the nearest town (pop. 1,100), five hours from the nearest city. But that wasn’t alone enough. So, I drive out to Escalante, hundreds of miles from home. But that’s not […]
Naatsis’a’an
The Mountain of the West
I’d only been closer to the supremely isolated Navajo Mountain once, years back when I’d driven toward it along a Native road and then got out and hiked to its base on Navajoland. A Dine’ couple had stopped in their car and asked me if I was lost and […]
Navajo Mountain, from the south
I headed south, up across Boulder Mountain to Escalante. Road trips, for me, are a blend of planning and inspiration, with inspiration taking the lead. Up I drove over the Aquarius Plateau, at 11,000 feet, the highest forested plateau on the continent. Snow blanketed its eastern flanks, and at […]