2025-07-01
Utah
We’re headed to the place least likely to rain in the entire American southwest, today. We’ve been in the mountains for long enough for desert rats. Coming out of 10,000 feet above sea level, we seem to be spending hours heading downhill. Actually, cumulatively, we are.
There is a turnoff from the Interstate highway, that’s all, just an overpass which quickly turns into a dirt road into hundreds of miles of generally uninhabited lands.
I get out to adjust the wheel lockers for the steadiness of 4×4 high. The truck drifts less on the hardened earth and gravel when set with three gripping wheels.
It is a bit unnerving, as I stand scanning the horizon. I feel that sense of being alone in a barren wilderness. We will be on our own. There will be no signs of humanity for many miles, but for this graded dirt conveyance. The sun’s warmth greets my body all over, as I stand staring out. That is freedom, when the sense of a journey into the sparse many miles brings me closer to faith. During each moment I’ll abandon myself to the next. The process will progress.
I take a deeper breath, climb in the cab, shift into first gear and let off of the clutch. The road winds through the vast desert, land formations are entertaining, but they are our only companions.
We are taking care not to miss our turnoff, when it finally arrives. There is a lone black SUV at the intersection. A family is going the other way. I check the gas gauge. We’re good.
Further downhill, we can see a pass through a pair of cliffs. Approaching them, we see a drop into a piece of Forest Service tourism. The dirt parking lot is large enough to accommodate a fleet of vehicles; its boundaries are defined by a rustic rail fence. We must be getting back closer to civilization and from here to the other route option, the road will be more traveled.
Temple Mountain, sacred space, huge pictures of maybe Gods, or spirits are depicted on the walls. A kiosk suggests the history and origins. Nobody is truly sure what the message is, but at one time, it must have been very important.
The Free Range Naturist 