the Hard blue sky on a hot day tires me, under the sweltering bright fire of the sun. I’ve been on this dirt trail for hours inside a cab that lacks basic air conditioning. I started my journey crawling slowly through a valley of creosote southeast of Littlefield, Arizona. It is about 1000 feet above sea level. I was heading towards the mountains that border the western flank of high desert known as the Arizona Strip country.
I approach Elbow Canyon, which is one of the rockiest roads I have taken this rig on; jagged and short switchbacks lead all the way to the top of the canyon. The vehicle bounces back and forth in 4 wheel drive as I steadily climb the steep grade. When I get to the top, I look back into bottomless hole that leads to the valley below.
I’m heading to Toroweap. I could’ve taken the easy-quick route, but I went sixty or seventy miles off the main road. My ventures are not always for fun or recreation, but to escape from wretched daily life and I’m in no hurry to dive into these places with a swift return to town. This is personal and I am in no rush… I love the beauty of Mother Earth… Never do I take beauty for granted.
Beads of sweat gather on my forehead, the sun smolders the interior, but I love it. I park under a canopy of Junipers in a Juniper Jungle, and head to a place they call Sullivan’s Canyon. This is a wicked canyon that dives into pre-Cambrian rocks of the Virgin River Gorge. I spend the rest of my day down in there, where strange things lurk. Large and spectacular stands of Manzanita grow like ancient Bristlecone. There was something following me, I heard it nearby, but refused to react in fear. Whatever it may have been, it did not molest…
All is quiet… Nothing else really matters…
My future children may want to give me a proper burial, but I will not approve of it. If they love me, they will let the buzzards feed off my remnants… Or at least bury me somewhere in the remoteness of the Strip…