Cover Girl

I had an article published in the last issue of “N” Magazine, the quarterly for The Naturist Society Foundation. TNS is one of two primary naturist organizations in the United States, kind of like British Naturism (BN). Their publication is excellent naturist reading, if you’d like to invest in a copy, or membership.

I sent some illustration photos with it, as usual. Then one day, I got a message. They wanted to use one of my photos for the cover! Flattery will get you somewhere quite often, “Sure, let me okay with DF.”

When I called up DF, I sang “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” Doctor Hook’s old song (written by Shel Silverstein) about a rock band getting on the mag’s cover. She had heard this before and knew what it meant. Once, or twice, she had been in a group gathering photo on the cover and I had sung it to kid her.

Gotta love the Nick Jagger parody.

One other time, my body had been edited out of a photo and that cover featured her backside in front of an Arizona vista. Each time, I kidded her with the comical song. This cover would feature her smiling identifiable face nude in Utah. It would go with the article that I wrote about nude travel in the region.

Our nude images have been in the pages of the magazine numerous times over the years. The first times that I had sung the song her alarmed eyes got big, “wha?” This time she just shrugged her shoulders with a grin, giving me a nonchalant, “sure.”

My image had also been on the heading for their website http://www.naturistsociety.com and I was like a Mr. March, or something, in one of their calendars, but still, to me, there’s something very cool about a magazine cover photo.

Here are photos of the cover and the article.

The text and those photos follow further into this post. I had to wait to publish here, until the issue was established for exclusivity. The new edition just came out. I have two more articles in the new issue; one about desert nude gardening and one addressing killer bees during naked hiking. Eventually, they will also turn up here.

From, “N”: The Magazine of Naturist Living.

Vol. 44 Issue 2 Spring 2025

Published by the Naturist Society Foundation, Inc.

“Naturally Nude in Bears Ears National Monument”

Last June/ July, we visited Bears Ears National Monument for the first time. DF and I packed my SUV to the brim and drove up from Tucson freely nude. The wide open spaces just continued to expand.

We awoke to a stunningly magnificent natural vision the first morning. Sunrise was spectacular, beaming across miles of plateau, the sun illuminating the color of iconic Monument Valley in the distance. We spent hours watching the sunlight creeping into the snaking San Juan River Canyon, nearly a mile below us. Most of the Monument area is sparsely populated, so in time, the heat of the day allowed us to strip off all of the layers of cloth, we took a lovely long nude walk along the unique surreal vision we found ourselves in.

We started nearly every day in much this same way and spirit for the next month. This area is vast and every turn gifts a different amazing experience with an awe inspiring vista. The barren rock formations are in a perpetually changing plethora of color, under turquoise skies that refuse to rain.

We moved to suit our lack of clothing, keeping comfortable by changing elevation. The vast desert landscape and then clear up into the pine covered mountains, allowed a continuing nude vacation. Once a week, we stayed in town to get provisions and civilize ourselves. There were a few people on the trails around Labor Day. There were chilly evenings (by our Tucson standards). Otherwise, the entire world allowed us a free ranging nude life, wherever we roamed.

We soon realized that these former “Badlands” have been continuously populated in nearly every one of the numerous canyons for millennia. There were so many great hikes, we just couldn’t do every one of them that accumulated on our list.

We soon discovered that many would lead us to ancient ruins. Although, it is forbidden, for good reason, to take from these archeological sites, there is a thrill in just discovering these treasures. Attired naked but for thin shoes and hat, there is a special connection and understanding, when walking through a once farmed valley, and climbing into complexes where ancients, too, lived naturally. There is a thrill to find hundreds of years old, pottery chards, ears of corn and architecture. We got a wide eyed Indiana Jones bug, but without the garb. We soon visited the world class local museums and collected more  literature to get a better understanding about what we were experiencing.

A high clearance truck is recommended, even four wheel drive on the dusty back roads and into some  campsites. There are no hotels for many dozens of miles, no gas stations, just freedom and a reintroduction to one’s natural and spiritual being.

We find that clothed people get hot easier than we nude people. Often, we were left even more to ourselves as temperatures rose. Even so, I can tell you that also in the cool remote forested mountains,  we saw no other human beings for four days. I must warn that in Utah, there are laws about intending to have certain body parts seen by those few who might object, but one of those silly people has to be there to see.

It is big country, filled with amazement, but one must be prepared and be self-reliant. We had 12 gallons of water, food, tent, comfortable bedding, first aid, extra tire checks, and a vehicle stuffed with necessity, whenever we left town.

We have been camping and hiking nude for two decades. These times have, much more seldom than not, been with social nudity. It has been a solitude, an immersive awareness, and a joy to wake up each day. It is healthy. We lived outdoors and slept in a tent for a month and I’d assume that sounds rugged for many, but we slept well in comfort, looking up into star filled skies, breathed real air and ate delicious nutritious, even fresh foods. We walked and moved together, exercising a lot every day. We only had phone service and internet in town each week and surprised, found that it was a pleasure. We read books, and mostly made our own music, when we weren’t listening to the pleasant calm.

As a naturist, the huge rewards are just different than visiting a resort’s experience. It is vibrantly healthy and will keep a naturist feeling young. This gave a sense of being in touch with something that few get to truly know these days. It is something that the original inhabitants knew and honed and appreciated like treasure. It is a gifted blessing.

Eighty-five percent of Bears Ears National Monument will have crassly had its protections removed after January 20th. After our month long visit, we can testify that it is certainly worthy of the Monument status and protection and the decision was sadly very wrong. We also know that much of our heritage will be lost, as we saw that much of it already has disappeared. It is however remote and this will take time. We know that we can revisit and enjoy the treasure of it for some time to come…naturally nude.

I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.

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