thoughts on life in a small, rural, mormon town

Torrey is one of nine towns in Wayne County (WC), Utah. It is inarguably the most "liberal," "open-minded," "accepting" of all the towns here. Why do I use quote marks? Because, dear readers, your definition of those appellations and WC's definition probably vary wildly.

Torrey, as I may have noted before, actually has three churches, as opposed to the other towns only having the dominant LDS (Mormon) church. Torrey is home to an eclectic pile o' people, including hippies, artists, ranchers, Mormons, grubby outdoorsy types, writers, photographers, horsemen and -women, rich folks, poor folks, in-between folks, and many deliciously diverse more.

Torrey is also, as is most of Utah, a very red town, as in Republican. In the election one year ago, however, for the first time in its history Torrey voted blue! There are plenty of Obama supporters here, and they voted. The local paper, The Insider, very grudgingly noted Torrey's left-leaning sensibilities as my little home ripped itself away from the dominant majority. Heh. (Doesn't really matter if you supported Obama or not...my point is that for once the majority was toppled by the determined, and very few, votes of the lesser-represented.)

In last week's election, we voted for Mayor and Council members. My neighbors on my little street (called, very tongue-in-cheek, Morningwood Drive) both won their respective runs. Adus Dorsey is the new mayor of Torrey, and Jennifer Howe is a new councilwoman. They each take up their duties in January.

Neither one is particularly aligned with the majority religion in WC...they won't be mouthpieces for it. Have I mentioned before that there is little separation of church & state in Utah?

Now, this is NOT an anti-LDS rant. It is merely an observation of the mores and morals (or sometimes lack thereof) in my teeny rural adopted homeland. I will note, however, a conversation the other day with a woman who lives here with her two kids, both of whom are in the WC public school system, and none of whom are LDS. Last year, her son's teacher told his class that anyone supporting Obama was a terrorist! (The kid's eight, for crying out loud.) This teacher also supposedly pushes her pro-LDS sentiments in the classroom...of course, the debate over such behavior from a teacher goes on ad nauseum. I say, no sirree. You'd better not push your values on my kid, lady. You're supposed to be teaching them readin', writin', and 'rithmetic.

I digress. Hmm, this might be just a bit of a rant.

Back to my impressions of my little town. I love Utah. Its gorgeous landscapes have stunned me since I first beheld them ten years ago. I am in favor of difference of opinion, diversity, and honest expressions of one's beliefs. I also happen to believe that there's a time and place for all things! I like to believe in our democratic process...though I also often have my doubts.

Ah, too much to think about. What do YOU think about belief systems and sharing said beliefs with others? What have you experienced in your lifetime, good, bad, or downright ugly?

a natural high: drunk on the beauty of the red rocks

Oh, it is so spectacularly beautiful this morning in Torrey. The sky is a crisp blue, the sun is uncovered, there's a light breeze rustling the changing leaves of the nearly-bare aspen trees, and the red cliffs are just begging to be explored and climbed.

Hmm, I've mentioned before that I live in paradise, no? This is a sublime time (ooh, bad rhyme! Ha.) of year to visit. The nights are definitely chilly, but damn, the daytime is so perfect for tramping around the desert. Think of the treasures you might stumble across in your wanderings! Pottery shards (yeah, don't take those), dinosaur bones (um, don't take those either), petrified wood (okay, you're allowed to take a small amount of that, but you'd best check in with the Bureau of Land Management office for specifics), possible sightings of bald eagles, golden eagles, bighorn sheep, quick-moving lizards, rabbits darting and leaping everywhere.

Dang. I need to get out and explore today myself! Me and the Pip pup. He'll love a good adventure.

Now, here's something I missed from last month. Wild horses are definitely considered iconic in the American West...but they're also hideously overpopulated and not being adopted due to recent economic concerns. In fact, some people have taken to dumping domestic horses out on the range...Yeah, that's what you do with a domestic animal you can no longer care for. Been going on for a while, too, sadly enough. Anyway, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has apparently launched an idea to make sustaining the wild horse herds, well, more sustainable. Will it work? Let's see. This is a whole other discussion for another post. And will I be able to go on and on about it! (You can start by reading more here; please note that these are someone else's thoughts, but any thoughtful addition to the conversation makes it more well-rounded.)

the bittersweet season

It's fall here...I love it, yet it brings an anxious pang to my heart every year. Fall is when the colors burst from the deciduous trees, the sky is even more brilliant blue than usual, and the weather is mostly awesome for hiking in desert canyon land. I can relax...explore...revel in uncrowded beauty here. I made apple pie with the fruit from the trees in my back yard. Leaves are thick on the ground, and smoke scents the air as many people (me included) fire up their wood stoves to ward off the chill. This is the sweet part.

But here in Torrey, it's also the end of the season. The tourist season, the awake season, is winding to an abrupt finis, an ending that lands sudden and sharp as the cold and the shorter days. Most of the businesses in town close, including my place of employment, Capitol Reef Backcountry Outfitters. Things start to feel...eerie. It's another winding down. An ending, and we all know how difficult those can be. This, of course, is the bitter part.

It's actually a wonderful time of year to visit. The crowds have slimmed considerably and the cooler temps just make it more pleasant. I plan to get out there and explore a bit. I have been stir crazy lately!

Oh, and my goodness. The remains of Everett Ruess are not his after all, it seems. How crazy is that? Who's to blame for the snafu? Well, that might be a moot point. Although I feel for the family members, who are still lacking the closure they seek, it's sort of nice to have the mystery still open. It reminds me that once again, all possibilities are open.

Which is how I perhaps ought to think about fall. Hmm...off to wander the red rocks and ponder that thought!

shameless self-promotion

Well, but I'm also promoting southern Utah, the land of my heart and soul. Damn, I'm actually promoting it all over the place, these days. Can't help it, I love this area so much. I want others to love it too...responsibly. (Do you hear me, silly NYT article that did NOT include a useful sidebar telling visitors how to behave when visiting the perilous desert? Grumble. I hold you responsible for the trashing of Spooky & Peek-a-Boo. Seriously. That and just the all-too-common lack of human decency or respect these days.)

I'm the southern Utah Local Expert (sounds very official, no?) for NileGuide, a very cool travel site for the savvy, hip traveler (hey, that's you, really). I'm in charge of Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, and Moab. Uh...keeps me busy! Hopefully they'll add Capitol Reef sometime (but not too soon, I've got lots to catch up on with the other parks. Yikes....)

Set me up a Twitter account (yeesh, the thought scares me...but here I go anyway), @julietrevelyan.

And soon, hopefully, I'll be blogging for Capitol Reef Backcountry Outfitters, where I just completed my second season full of adventure & exploration.

Ah...the rain is falling wildly and the thunder is shaking and rolling terribly at the moment. Huge storm! And I'm inside! Writing! I love being able to look outside at the sturm und drang yet not have to be in it. God, this place is so beautiful. See?

oh, summertime, how I love thee...

...but how you make my writing suffer! I knew it had been some time since I blogged on here, but I was utterly aghast to realize it'd been almost two months. Mea culpa!!! A thousand times over. Not like I have a huge readership or anything. Yet still, the responsibility hangs heavy on me at the moment.

As you may know, in the summer I am paid (paid, I tell you! Miraculous.) to play outside. Ride horses, go hiking, drive people around to gorgeous areas like Capitol Reef National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). Look at these pictures and weep:

(yes, my pants are highwaters...deal with it. I have long legs! Velvet Ridge aglow in background.)


(the bridge at Devil's Garden in GSENM)


(riding my decidedly nervous horse (Doc) in the annual 4th of July parade in Torrey)


(Pippin at Blind Lake!)


(on our way home from Blind Lake...descending Boulder Mountain...with Thousand Lake Mountain in the background. Tough job, eh?)


As you can see, I've been quite busy running around this lovely area. But I really will try to post more often...it's just so hard during these gorgeous, busy days!

Hope summer is going fabulously well for everyone else out there too. Enjoy it...it only comes once a year. ;)

don't twig out: the creepy connection between pot hunters & meth

Ever hear of a "twigger"? Yeah, neither had I, until I read this aptly-titled article ("Drugs, Guns and Dirt") in the March/April issue of Archaeology Magazine. Wow. Twiggers: methamphetamine users (often called "tweakers") who apply the drug's obsessive-compulsive drive to search methodically through archaeological sites, loot them thoroughly, then sell their illegally-gained finds on the black market to get more money to supply them with their meth habit.

Unreal, no?

And of course, in the process these addicts are destroying the history and culture of the areas they loot, because they aren't exactly doing it in a way that preserves provenance.

Other articles contribute to the details of this exploding "trade:" here, here, here, and this most recent SL Tribune article.

You might be tempted to think this is small potatoes. Nuh-uh. The illegal antiquities trade (on a worldwide scale, although U.S. Southwest native american artifacts are a huge leader) has been estimated to be in the Billions of dollars--right behind drug smuggling and the illegal arms trade. Yikes, no?

I reported the other day on a big bust right here in Southern Utah. Well, that plot has thickened considerably, and all sorts of people are upset now. It seems that some of the local Blanding residents object to having their names "tarnished"; our very open-minded (she says with a curled lip of distaste) Utah senators are crying foul on Interior Secretary Salazar's harsh crack-down; and at least one accused Blanding resident has apparently committed suicide due to his arrest.

Yegads.

The whole situation is sad, to be sure. Law-breaking, disregard for history, for an entire country's right to enjoy its treasures, the loss of life, the bs and the lies...

But I whole-heartedly agree with the federal process. Those locals of Blanding, UT, who willfully broke the law need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They do not need to be bailed out. They need to take responsibility for their illegal actions--forced to take it, if need be. Hello, it's called The Antiquities Act of 1906 (yes, that would be 1906, not 2006 for those out there who would like the twist the law to suit themselves), and it says it's ILLEGAL to take ancient human artifacts out of the ground unless you are permitted to do so! And yet many Blanding residents (as well as others throughout the world) justify their actions with the statement, "But I always did it as a kid, it wasn't illegal then." Perhaps not, if you are at least 115 years old.

Grr.

I live in rural Utah. I come face-to-face with ignorant attitudes toward our country's government on a regular basis. Trust me, the people who have gotten away with their "we hate and don't need the federal government" drama for years need to ante up and recognize that if they don't like it, they can darn well move somewhere else. Such as Siberia. Or maybe, just maybe, they could get themselves educated and caring and start protecting the rich archaeological treasures near their homes.

Grrr.

Okay. Off my rant. And remember not to twig.

Peek-A-Boo & Spooky

No, it's neither a child's game nor time for Halloween. Rather, it's two great little slot canyons, the classic beginner ones that everyone who wants to hike a slot canyon should do. I first hiked them about six years ago, and yesterday had the privilege of taking a friend who had never in her life been in a slot canyon! Lookie here for some of what we experienced:

Yes, ooh & aah. That one is inside Peek-A-Boo.

Let me note that these slot canyons, plus another one called Brimstone, are located near Escalante, Utah, 28 miles down the v-e-r-y- j-a-r-r-i-n-g Hole-in-the-Rock Road (seriously, the washboards were terrible). It's recommended you have 4WD and definitely high-clearance. Since there was a recent New York Times article about Escalante (which features a great pic of Peek-A-Boo), the crowds had stampeded to the area. We saw probably no less than 60 freakin' people on our hike, and it made our experience in Spooky less than desirable, as we had to squeeze back into the rocks to let herds of Boy Scouts pass, and felt rushed when we heard people coming up right behind us in the there-is-no-physical-way-possible-that-you-can-pass-anther-human-being slot.

But I digress. Just look at these pics, and marvel more:

This was our Chaco-clad feet covered in the STINKY muck leftover from recent storms that we had to climb through in order to get up into Peek-A-Boo!


This is other people descending what we climbed UP into when first getting into Peek-A-Boo. Are you now properly impressed with our prowess? Let me tell you, it took forever to get in, because our feet kept slipping on the wet mud. Note: don't try this going up (when wet) unless you're really sure of yourself or use ropes. It could be really dangerous. You didn't hear me tell you to do it!


This is looking down into Peek-A-Boo. I climbed up on top and snapped this to demonstrate how deep in the womb of mama Earth we were.


Spooky. Yes, this is what you have to go through. You truly cannot be wider than about a foot in some areas. People who are, ah, well-nourished, should not attempt this slot canyon. Nor if you have claustrophobia, nor if you are athletically challenged--you often have to climb up, down, over, or all three, the rocks that get caught in a slot, which are called chockstones.



Me sneakin' through Spooky. See? Narrow! And so, so fun.

Southern Utah. Land of the natural cathedrals, sublime beauty, amazing forces of nature demonstrated right before our eyes. Oh, how I love it....