Tuesday, November 03, 2009

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.)
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4 comments:

Unknown said...

We are still riding here in Alaska as well. The temp this morning is 20 and climbing. I will be out there by 11:00am!! Beautiful full moon is calling for a moonlight ride too. No snow as of yet!!

Julie Trevelyan said...

Ooh, a moonlight ride! I haven't been on one of those for years. Should go right now...but too darn cold at night for me right now, lol.

Our snow is all melted, but let me tell you, last week it looked like freaking January around here. Ah, crazy weather...love it.

Fida said...

You know how to make me long for a natural high.
The problem with abandoned horses is a sad side of the economy - we know that here up in Canada too!

Julie Trevelyan said...

Oh, abandoned horses is such a horrible problem everywhere, it seems. I really do want to post more on it. It depresses me. How people can do that...well, I put nothing past the capacity of humans, actually. We can be so cruel sometimes.

Anyway, thanks for reading & following!