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| Devils Garden in Arches National Park |
I ask my students to describe the meaning in one of my offbeat assignments in my geology courses and I get all kinds of answers. Many will describe a experience from our local educational camp in the Sierra Foothills, or an excursion they took to a local river or lake. Many of them have almost never left the city limits, and camping in the Sierra to them is terra incognita, far beyond their experience or expectation.
I've always known I've had a blessed life in many ways, and what has made it especially rich is the privilege of leading my students on true adventures way out there in America's Back of Beyond, the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range country. I've just returned home from one of those journeys.
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| In Zion National Park |
"Back of Beyond" is informally defined by Merriam-Webster as "a place that is very far from other places and people: a remote place". There are literary connections in the writings of Edward Abbey and C.J. Box, and a 1954 documentary from Australia. It is also the name of one of the finest bookstores in Utah. Outside of Alaska, some of the wildest and remote country in the United States is indeed the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin, and to me it is some of the finest scenery in the world, and its geological story is fascinating. And...the land is endangered.
I'd like you to experience this country, if only through narrative and photography. I hope you will join me over these next few weeks as I describe our experience in a series of blog posts, and perhaps understand why we need to take action to protect the heritage of these fragile lands.
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| Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park |
As usual, my ambitions often exceed my time allocation, so forgive me if delays occur in new postings!
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