I was listening to this podcast the other day while road tripping through the desert and found myself both saddened and furious.  In Stuff You Should Know’s Will the moon save humanity?, Josh and Chuck are pondering the end of the world and discussing projects that may save humanity.

In the intro they discuss projects such as Norway’s “Doomsday” Seed Vault and the British DNA depository which supposedly can rebuild an entire ecosystem from plant, animal, and human DNA stores. They wonder, “Which ecosystem?” do we have the power to rebuild.  “Is it a desert? Cuz who really wants to rebuild that?”  Nobody, they agree.

Views From the Hidden Valley Trail - Moab, Utah

Well I would! Begin sadness…

I know this whole desert as wasteland belief is widely held but I really don’t understand how the desert got such a bum rap.  Most people that have actually been to the desert find themselves totally awestruck and surprised by both its simplicity and beauty.  The tough part seems to get people there in the first place…

Cholla Cactus and Joshua Trees in the Mojave National Preserve

I have to admit the beauty of the desert didn’t immediately take me over but more slowly captured my spirit.

I’ve since devoured the words of Edward Abbey, Terry Tempest Williams, and Katie Lee.  I longed for their gift of story telling – their ability to move people into action.  Their words have made desert virgins chuck everything to experience Desert Solitaire from the eyes of Ed.  They have inspired others to devote their being to protecting unnamed canyons and relics of cultures that came before us and moved some to risk their own freedom trying to stop quasi-legal oil and gas leases.

I tried to explain how places with names like Onion Creek, Elephant Canyon, Hatch Wash made me feel – what they stirred inside of me.  On paper I was wordless, but in spirit I was spewing flawless prose.

And so I’ve decided to giveaway the words of others. I want to share the stories that have so moved me with the hopes of changing just one person’s belief of the desert as barren and meaningless.

I will start with Edward Abbey’s classic, Desert Solitaire.  This is Abbey’s memoir of his years as a ranger at Arches National Monument (now National Park) outside of Moab, Utah.  It is a great intro to environmentalism and the growing threats of mining, the auto industry, and tourism on our fragile wilderness.  Both thought-provoking and rebel-rousing, Desert Solitaire has moved pacifists to grab the nearest monkey wrench and raise some hell.

Balanced Rock at Arches National Park

Like all free things there is a catch.  After reading the book you must either give the book to someone else and/or let me know (in just a few sentences) what you got out of the book.  Did you gain any new insights?  Did the book inspire you in anyway or do you still strongly advocate strip mining? You will then be featured in the blog and receive much fame and link love-age.

To enter simply leave a comment (perhaps some desert thoughts) before April 20, 2010 and the winner will be chosen randomly and announced April, 21, 2010.

Hiking Through Chesler Park - Needles District, Canyonlands National Park

To conclude, here are some words from Ed in Desert Solitaire:

“Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life-forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

Flowering Cactus in Joshua Tree National Park

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
~Edward Abbey

It is no coincidence that the ultimate event in self-expression, Burning Man, occurs every August in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Whether it is ancient rock art, massive earth work pieces (Michael Heizer’s work) or mind-tripping burning playa works – Nevada and the rest of the West are breeding ground for artistic expression.

In The Void, the Grid & the Sign, William L Fox takes the reader on a remarkable journey through the dramatic void of the Great Basin making sense of the landscape through art, architecture, and history.  Fox advocates the need for such voids, “big empty spaces into which we can travel in order to see ourselves.”  The desert is important because it is absent of everything we are accustomed to – grass, trees, signs, buildings, city lights, landmarks… The desert severely disturbs our perceptions, makes us uncomfortable, and challenges our habits and comforts of mind.  And when we return home, we view things differently.

Chillin' Somewhere on the Utah-Nevada Border

“In a sense, by virtue or its unadorned surface and the subsequent scope of our vision, the desert acts as an indicator region for the rest of the planet… It’s precisely the vision we need in order to calculate truly our effects on the planet before we spoil it to the point of our own extinction, if we haven’t yet done so,” Fox says so eloquently in the book.

After spending weeks in the Mojave Desert and Death Valley a few years ago, I drove through Las Vegas on my way to the Grand Canyon.  I stopped at Whole Foods to stock up on groceries and wandered aimlessly through that store looking to dazed and confused – a total crazy case – that 3 employees asked me if I was ok.  I was so utterly overwhelmed by the aisles and aisles of packaged goods and excess and all that unnatural fluorescent lighting that I honestly couldn’t function.

The Sun Tunnels

I returned to my car empty handed realizing I could make do with what I had.  It was totally like that scene in the movie Into the Wild, where Alexander Supertramp ends up in LA after spending all that time drifting on the Colorado – feeling so totally overstimulated and disconnected from body and space and so small and so alone on this Earth.

And for this experience, one more reason I love the West.

Art may just be the way to forge a human relationship with the desert – a chance to have our perceptions altered and hopefully leading us to reexamine the way we view the rest of our world.

Other ‘Why I Love the West’ posts:

Why I Love the West: Amazing Natural Hot Springs

Today I am introducing a new series entitled “Why I Love the West”.

The American West is the ultimate destination for extreme budget travelers.  Besides the cost of a car and fuel, you can learn to scrape by on practically nothing with free camp spots and plenty of no cost sights to keep you entertained such as hot springs, hiking trails, super strange desert art, and loads of bizarre-o geology.  Not too mention some relatively low cost sights like national parks, small town diners that serve up a cheap yet mean breakfast, and happy hours at western bars that feature ridiculously large, cheap drinks, and a cast of eccentric regulars.

The Poolside Bar at Norris Hot Springs

I am totally obsessed with natural hot springs.  Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Eastern California are geothermally active gold mines for naturally occurring hot water springs.  Plus the peculiarities of the west usually manifest themselves well at these springs.  Visiting any hot springs in the west comes with two warnings – make sure you test the temperature before entering the spring (temps can be too hot sometimes and boil your foot right off) and be prepared to see any number of bizarre happenings (naked old people, hippies engaged in energy work, and ancient healing rituals).

Lowers Pools at Fifth Water Springs Utah

The Upper Pool at Fifth Water Hot Springs

My favorite hot springs are those found near rivers.  The moving water keeps the springs clean and you get the option of dipping in the cool water when you get too hot. The river is usually damned off by rocks to create little pools and in some cases pools are built into the bank of the river with rocks and cement.  My absolute favorite hot spring is located about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City – Fifth Water Springs. A 2.5-mile hike takes you to a series of hot springs with a gorgeous waterfall backdrop.

Beware the stagnant pool, many springs are simply holes in the ground with water piped in from the source – such as South Canyon Hot Springs Colorado.  Conditions often times vary in these springs and are dependent on the amount of work put in by the unofficial springs caretaker.  Nevada and eastern California have a ton of these types of pools and some are amazing and some are darn right disgusting.

South Canyon Hot Springs in Colorado

I spent the last weekend in Montana and found the cutest little commercial hot spring just west of Bozeman. Norris Hot Springs was super clean, the perfect temperature for winter soaking, only $5 to enter, and had a poolside bar offering up a good selection of microbrews, local wines, and even mimosas.  The hot spring also has live folk, bluegrass, and Americana music every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.

Enjoying Mimosas Poolside at Norris Hot Springs

Check out Soak for some information about hot springs found all over the west.  It is not the most user friendly website but it will help you locate springs all over the US and then you can scour the web for more detailed information.

Penny Hot Springs Near Carbondale, Colorado