River of Sorrows. The Dolores and its environs. That’s what you see in the above pic. The canyon system sculpted by the Dolores River, one of the unsung rivers of the west. I took this picture above Bradfield Bridge. The view is southwest, and the distant range atop the rim is Sleeping Ute, on the Ute Mountain Ute lands.

It’s mid-March, toward the end of the winter without a winter. You’ll see no snow on the ground. I’ve parked at a side road littered with thousands of shotgun shells. Someone has killed an old, analogue TV set, leaving the carcass to be gutted by mice. I walk a couple miles past the Forest Service gate that closes the upland road to traffic. Patches of snow begin to soften the road as I tread up, up into ponderosa forest. A fire has burned everything on the west side of the road as far as I can see, at least up through the next ridge.

I can make out the Abajo in Utah, still snowclad from February storms, the only snowfall our region has received all winter. As I reach the top of a long crest, the ultrawhite peaks of the La Sals north of Moab poke over the blacked boles which stand in a vast graveyard on either side of the canyon.

Glimpses of the even whiter La Platas rise along the opposite horizon. Yet the white paint on all the horizons is just primer and will soon melt. We’re at about 44% average annual snowpack. Most of what comes in March in this spring without a winter has insufficient base to stay very long. People are worried about the upcoming fire season. It’s kind of like painting wood without applying primer. You need a base. Colorado juniper are turning rusty everywhere. Those trees, filled with flammable sap, explode like match heads when struck by lightning.

I wonder if I can gain a high vantage point. I spot a clearing of blue sky behind and above a line of ponderosa at the top of the hill on sone high ground up the road, but on these mountain roads, its false ridge after false ridge. Sure enough, when I reach the crest, the road turns upward and the top-out ends up being just a temporary landing from which more rolling foothills stretch to the end of sight. The forests are burnt clear on the west side of the road, yet greened with deep forest on the east side.

Once green with ponderosa, the sweeping west canyon walls hang tawny with dormant oak brush and bunchgrass and woody sage. The ponderosa have all burned. On the east side, these highlands eventually reach east into the San Juan Mountains.

Far west of the canyon near Dove Creek, flat to rolling farmlands are already being plowed for beans, and irrigation wheel lines edge tilled fields like Men of War, ready for spring battle. Those red lands beyond, with soil blown up during endless windstorms from Arizona through the Mesa Verde-Sleeping Ute gap, will green with beans and other crops in the coming weeks. Hopefully. The bean growers sometimes practice dryland farming. So, a lot depends on moisture depth in the soil, and on spring rain.

My novel, The Crippy, happens in a small town in those snowless valleys between the base of these foothills and Sleeping Ute, in a fictional town called Animas. Like these overwintering lands in need of weather to maintain their forest cover and crops, Animas is a town clinging on the edge. Riddled with meth and poverty, it’s people hang on, barely. Thirsty. Living from snow to snow, from rain to rain. How much longer can it all grasp to the back of Mother Earth?

To get here: Take highway 491 north out of Cortez toward Utah. There are several FS access roads (designated in brown) into this region. Take a right on R.00, the road just north of Cahone and south of Dove Creek, and follow the signs to Lone Dome State Wildlife Area. Just after Bradfield Bridge, turn onto Road 504. Park anywhere and walk up the road.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within