My father used to work the building trades in Chicago as an electrician. He worked on some of the tallest buildings in the world at the time, and he was not faint of heart. During World War II, he watched men burned alive as kamikazes hit the deck of the aircraft carrier to which he was assigned. He rode the streets of Nagasaki a few days after the bomb was dropped.

Yet he would swallow with wide eyes as he told of Mohawk Native Americans who worked as ironworkers on skyscrapers along with him. These men were hired because of their surefootedness, and their fearlessness in walking the I-beams as if they played on a children’s playground. With a mix of admiration and fear, he related how these men would walk right up to the edge of an unwalled deck and look straight down 50 stories with no fear. 

How do you feel as you look at the photo at the top of this post? I know that I won’t get too close to the edge.

You’re looking down at the Colorado River in a straight gorge called Narrow Canyon. You can see across the canyon that there’s almost no talus at the bottom of the cliffs. Narrow Canyon feeds into Lake Powell a few miles from here at Hite. I’ve been told that Narrow fills up when Powell is at full pool. When I started coming here a few years ago, Powell was emptying. You could walk a mile south of the Hite Crossing and the Colorado was still a muddy river sticking to its channel.

 Now, Narrow Canyon is filling again. Take a look at the photo below.

You’ll see some of the beaches flooded. Others have narrowed. This could be due to seasonal runoff, yet I think not, since the pictures were taken in late September, long after the spring melt up in the mountains which feed this river, and without the benefit of recent storms. Canyon is lost to river, land surrenders to water. Global warming projections call for a sea level rise. Yet with all the desert bathtubs we’ve created in the Southwest, it’s already risen around here. I foresee in some not-so-distant future that we’ll learn to desalinate water economically. Yet here, far from the oceans, long after America has declined, I don’t ever see them emptying out Lake Powell and recreating Glen Canyon. Too many cities depend on the water now. Too many lawns and golf courses. Too many house boats ply the serpentine shores of Powell. So, I must be content to hike these lesser canyons which feed into the old Glen.

There are water signs, and there are those in love with desert. I figure the world’s covered with about 7 parts water, so I opt for the rockier outposts. The canyons here amaze, with names like Rock and Dark, Happy and Blue Notch, Fry and Farley. But they all feed in to Glen. It’s hard even to find pictures of the way it once was. Outside of southeast Oregon, I do believe this is the remotest American terrain anywhere below the Canadian border. It’s why I set my stories here.

Update: Boy, was I wrong. Since I wrote this post, Glen Canyon is reasserting itself. The droughts have gone from extreme to exceptional. You can walk from the old marina at Hite for more than a mile south and see the old Colorado in its ancestral, pre-Lake Powell, channel. It’s amazing how rapidly Lake Powell, and downstream of it, Lake Mead, have emptied. And the same phenomena is repeating in Europe, in China, and in other regions in the Northern hemisphere as riverbeds reveal old ships and statues of the Buddha, and DB’s not far from Vegas in Lake Mead.

To get here: Heading northwest, take Utah highway 95 to Road 633, the dirt road on the right, about a mile northwest of the Hite Bridge. It’s before the crossing for the Dirty Devil River. About 2 miles in, across the road from some mighty fins that are worth climbing between, park on the desert pave. Walk south, perpendicular to the road for about 1.5 miles at the heads of side canyons that feed into the Colorado. You’ll reach Rock Canyon, a slot that feeds into the Colorado. Follow it until you reach the river.

© 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