We’ve hiked most of the trails in Needles during our five week volunteer stint, but still hadn’t been able to replicate the hike we did a decade ago with Northwest friends, Jack and Mary Lange. We remembered that we had started and ended in Loop A of the campground Read the rest of this article…
We went straight to the panel and I was blown away. All pictographs (paint on rock) are special, but this one is unique. The white pigment leaps out from the red sandstone in the reflected light of the overhang, and the string of dots (passing of the sun?) is something we haven’t seen before, though admittedly we are novices in the extreme in this rock art appreciation hobby. Read the rest of this article…
We topped a small rise in western Kansas in Turtle. Morning light cast our shadow down a long straight road ahead of us. The colors were intense, the air sparkled, the land rolled off in wheat stubble and stone fence posts to a horizon uncut by haze. A railroad track led to a lone grain elevator. I took an involuntary deep breath; a gasp almost, of clean dry air. It’s been months since I’ve been able to see that far, months since the air was so clear, blue and white and wheat color, chocolate loam, the sky so big, so big. Read the rest of this article…
Claire remembers most, not surprisingly given her love of all things chocolate, the chocolate gravy she had over her biscuits one morning. We asked at several eateries and were directed to various fast-food locations; none had chocolate gravy. Read the rest of this article…
The reason for the smaller trees in the past was fire, no doubt caused by logging operations in the early part of the 20th century. The same fires burned Dolly Sods; both produced a unique landscape that is now returning to something akin to the original heavy forest cover. I’m not so sure it might be time to burn both again to regain the special character they had for nearly a century. I’m sure the idea would be controversial, but worth consideration.. Read the rest of this article…
At a distance I would not have recognized Jon had I passed him on the street, nor he I; forty plus years changes a body! But as I got closer, and the small talk proceeded, I began to notice bits of body language that hadn’t changed. As the memories of that time begat one story and another and another, suddenly there was a thing that touched me: an unmistakable Santa Klaus glint in his eye, a window into the humor and joy that is at the heart of the man; always has been, always will. Read the rest of this article…
For the past twenty some years I’ve been doing something that brings me great satisfaction, something I recommend to you. Express your appreciation to those who have had an impact on your life. Begin with your parents, if you are so lucky to have one or both, your siblings, teachers, work mates, bosses, old friends, spiritual guides; anyone who had an impact on your life’s path. When you begin thinking about these people, you will be amazed, as was I, at the people who helped form your present self. It’s a wonderful process, one I don’t expect to fin Read the rest of this article…
Around the fire roasting a mastodon long ago, or fishing with ripe hot dogs, storytelling is as old as language, as old as man. It’s the anchors we bury, story by story, into our the landscape of our lives. Our local stories hold us against the current, hold us from floating away, alone. Read the rest of this article…