Posts Tagged With: Bears Ears National Monument

Picard Connects

The Starship Enterprise has just landed on Earth in the year 2063, while chasing and destroying a Borg ship. Both have transferred back in time to get there. In a missile silo, they have contact with an old spaceship, one that Picard has seen at the Smithsonian centuries later. He places his hand upon the metal outer sheathing.

Data (the man made man): Sir, does tactile contact alter your perception of the Phoenix?

Captain Picard: For humans touch can connect you to an object in a very personal way, Make it seem more real.

Data gives touch a try in his usual curiosity.

(“Star Trek VIII: First Contact”)

Touch does make something real. There can even be a compulsion to reach out and touch someone. People get touched emotionally. People pinch themselves to make sure that they are not dreaming.

Touch is our nature and our birthright. When we touch and are touched by the world, the world feels more alive and real.

By just removing clothing, the entire experience of the planet becomes greater. To step into water nude, or to feel a gentle breeze across the entirety of the body, the heat of the sun, and to be entertained with all of the associations, the messages and knowledge of the moment through the body and sensitivity of the organ called the skin, we are more alive. Again, this is a birthright. To take this away is a wrong.

The holidays are making time difficult to find, so as to publish the stories of our journey through the Manti La Sal National Forest. Progress has been made, although slowed, but sure. The photo is from that drive. A passing cloud is felt, as well as seen.

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

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Sleeping on the Bear’s Back II

Bears Ears #36

2024-06-06

This morning, I lay in the tent watching fast clouds. A thought pops up. Ute, a tribe that I always associated as one of the plains tribes. This is Ute-ah, Utah! Duh! The evident finally occurs to me. There is a rich history of the Ute.

Another restful day, we find that the trail across the road from us is a road to another look out. We walk down it maybe halfway, just to enjoy the morning, carrying nothing, unrestricted, unscripted. Even the flip flop shoes come off at a point in the road. We’ve decided to walk it all…later.

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Sleeping on the Bear’s Back

Bears Ears #35

2024-06-05

We’re up here in Manti-La Sal National Forest, in the Bears ears National Monument. The morning has been casual, late rising, reading.  We have a breakfast, then it is time for lunch.

A boy, a young buck scampers around, only about 50 feet away from camp. He decides to have a green snack and stops. This isn’t the female who directed us to this spot in the woods last evening. This guy is decorated with emerging antlers. We stand and watch, then, moving quietly, easily; we grab cameras. This gentleman is fearless.

We snap a few as we creep forward. He backs away eventually several feet to match our move. We know his boundaries.

Relaxed, after a restful afternoon, we decide to walk.

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Hunting turkey

Bears Ears #34

06-06- 2024

The animals around here in these mountains are not so jittery nervous. We first noticed the deer’s behavior as we found a great camping spot and her pal’s attitude as he browsed the through our campsite the next morning. They trust us and I feel like that is something to respect. We share this place, as a kind of fellowship.

This morning, as I sit at camp, a curious squirrel comes up the road, stopping maybe 20 feet from my chair. It sits up on hind legs. A fluffy mass of tail, seemingly as big as the rodents entire body, whisk in serpentine circles in and out. It looks as if curiously weighing the notion to see what the truck, stove and other objects are about.  Around here, they look similar to the Arizona mountain squirrels, but the ears don’t have the comb-like flags at the tips. These critter’s triangle ears are tight symmetrical fur, arranged like a G.I. crewcut, square straight lines, lean. Its silver form takes off in a gallop from where it came from, playing with others down the road. I have been watching them comically gallivant there for a while.

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Right Between the Ears

Bears Ears #33

2024-06-04

It’s time to gather provisions and gas.  We’ll be heading up the road that cuts right in-between the Bear’s Ears, on top of its head and then onto its back. We’ll be lounging and exploring in the Manti-La Sal National Forest for a week or so.

In Blanding, Utah, I spend too much time for my liking. I’m stuck shoring up home insurance issues over the phone and checking internet texts and messages, after several days of no service. It has been a pleasure to be out of electronic contact, but this is the price. That process of waiting takes us to the visitor center, where I am able to spend some good time with a new hostess. She once lived up in those hills with her mother. I shamelessly grill her for insider’s information.

Just before we leave to backtrack to where we were this morning, which is 45 miles of carnuding. I pull off of the road at that sign that says ominously “Next services 121 Miles.” We strip, stuff away our clothing and resume down the now familiar road, to out west. For now, the wind blows through partly opened windows and the vent, circling, sensuously dancing all over naked bodies.

We find the road that will take us into the mountains. It is soon dirt. After a pickup truck passes,  I get out to switching into 4×4 for stability. We are alone here at the base of this mountain. I turn off the motor. Now in silence, I look up into the steep walls before me. They circle around us. The vast Canyonlands are behind us now. This is the beginning of an entirely new terrain and set of unknowns to set off into, naked. There is a sense of adventure, a new beginning and freedom.

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Fish and Owl: Bears Ears XXIX

2024-06-02

I’m continuing our series into Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. We’re looking for places to bivouac, set up camps near destinations and then get earlier starts on hikes.

We couldn’t leave our last camp soon enough because of gnats and the afternoon heat.  The harsh part of Summer isn’t far off. The plan is to situate in higher elevations and the better weather, climbing to suit our lack of suits. We’ll need a place to stay to get an early start near a trailhead, which leads to a ruin that we intend to explore.

A camping spot is found near a very fun old wooden bridge.

The solid old conveyance is filled with character, there are trees for shade and a dry creeks ambiance, maybe cool air will flow down the wash as evening passes.

The spot should suit our needs, but now we need another spot in proximity to Bridges National Park, our hike for the morning. Fish and Owl sounds like a good spot. There is a Ranger Station nearby. Our information is sparse at this point and they will help.

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Monarch

Bears Ears XXVIII

2024-05-31

We’re here in Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. We have backtracked to Monarch, where we think the Monarch Canyon trail is, after getting misdirected and lost.

An old peaceful looking, Santa appearance of a guy is walking down the two track road with a tall Gandalf-like walking stick. Perhaps Santa is on vacation. He smiles and affirms that we are in the correct spot.

At the trailhead, the off duty wizard has a fun little trailer with a generator humming.

We stop for lunch. While we munch, the New Mexican couple show up. We’re glad that they are not still wandering lost. They comment on the two oddly placed pieces of wood that showed us the way out. They too are grateful. (See the previous post: “LOST Looking for Monarch”)

We slip down the steep sandy slope which walls the riparian area where called the Comb Wash flows.

We let them go ahead, so we can follow at a distance nude. We will take our time and make more distance from them, as we go along and better savor the trail.

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LOST Looking for Monarch

Bears Ears XXVII

2024-05-31

Well, sometimes ya get into a skunk of a mess….

We are looking for one of “the Combs” canyons in Southeastern Utah.  This one leads up into the grand Monarch Ruins.

We are not sure today. We have notes and a rough drawn map with some mileage written on it. I have done the math to reverse that mileage, as we came from the other direction. The Buttler Wash Road is just a graded dirt route, not even a good place to take a motorhome, or low sedan. There are several side unmarked two track jeep trails branching off of it. They generally head toward the Comb Ridge, where a significant landmark, or at least a canyon can be seen in the distance. Today, we’re not so sure, but we’ll try the most likely candidate, by my reckoning.

When we arrive at the end of this dirt road, there is no apparent trailhead, but as we are eating a lunch snack, a couple with New Mexico plates pulls up in another slot in the overgrown desert bushes. We slip on some coverings and casually stroll over to ask them if their information shows this as the way to Monarch. They give the affirmative. We are encouraged, but in the back of my mind, I can’t see that they have any resources better than ours. They are going off of an internet website on a cell phone. None the less, we decide to tag along, safe in numbers.

They think that a trail down a steep slippery sandy slope is the route. I’ve seen these slots in the sand made by cattle and have doubts, yet we will allow ourselves to defer to them. They seem to know where they are.

I get more doubts at the bottom of this 20 ft. drop-off. The trail is like a tunnel through the thickets.

When I start to have to bend over, it gets suspiciously like a cattle trail, just at about a cows back’s height. Still, this is better than any route that we have found, so far.

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Pillow Rocks

Bears Ears XXVI

2024-06-02

We’re in Southeastern Utah, camped out near the Butler Wash, alone and free.

The sand around camp is cool and refreshing on bare feet. Soles meet mat-like substrata. Sound and wind is dead still. The Sun is still behind a hill to the east. The light of dawn tells us that the golden glow is nearly ready to burst out, as it rises. In time, there is a slight breeze, a push by the new warmer air, a micro-warm front. I hear the cottonwood trees rustle lightly. Across the valley, the barren ridge is taking on the luminescent colors of the sky.

Then I notice that rumble in the air in the distance. Will it build, or will it occur and go away. I decide to let the mind quiet. With that exercise, the wind also quiets, once again. I smile at a little voice inside, “Purr-fect.”

Last evening, we took a walk to see where this road leads. It brought us to a surreal landscape on the ridge on top of the cliff to the south of camp. On the way, we saw some other unusual geology on the side of the road and later, from above, it became evident that that was a part of a field of other different unusual forms.

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Surreal Mystery

Bears Ears XXV

2024-06-01

We had been up early, hiked the canyon and visited the Fish Mouth cave and ruins, here in southeastern Utah. Visiting the ruins was enriching. Afterwards, we spent the heat of the day, relaxing and resting from our excursions.

The afternoon was spent listening to the sound of insects, while we rested and waited for the air to cool off again. The sun has been getting more and more uncomfortable in the afternoon. The desert is getting hotter. Without clothing, this warmth feels good, but as the seasons change, it will become to feel like too much of a good thing.

We now know that this being comfortably naked in the heat of the day won’t last long, because the Weather Service says that it will get hotter Thursday.

When the time comes, before dinner, we have decided to explore the area around camp and the road behind us. For miles around, there are no other people. None have been seen driving on the so called main road, all afternoon. It is a desolate looking conveyance which dips so much that it is a motor homes nightmare. There are pockets of deep dust that would swallow the tires of a conventional sedan.

Main Road

We are around a half mile back on a tributary to that that appears to go to nowhere in particular. There is no concern to keep nearby cover-ups around, let alone any clothing. We can go for an unburdened walk as far as we care without concerns.

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