Journey into a collection of essays, reflections, and field observations that seek to uncover the deeper truths hidden within the desert and ourselves.
These writings weave together natural history, survival wisdom, philosophy, and personal experience — offering a window into The Way of Things.
Desert bighorn sheep gather at this little point of rocks before they attempt to cross the wide open desert to another mountain range. They have been doing this for untold ages. There are only a few glyphs here and none of them are bighorn sheep or atlatl.
When this water hole is full it can be 7 or 8 feet deep and last for months. In this picture the sheep are drinking the last of the water and they will have to find water somewhere else to survive the summer. I wrote an article on this place
Here you can look into the eyes of a true predator who understands his presence in the environment and the awareness of others.
This is Silver lake near Baker California it is rarely like this, most the time it is completely dry.
I wrote an entire article on this glyph there is more to it than initially meets the eye.
When I was a kid growing up in the desert around Barstow we could often find 4 or 5 tortoise a day. Who would’ve thought that in the space of less than one human lifetime they would rarely be seen.
This is a cold-blooded and venomous affair but in the end it will produce life.
The inspiration for the two-headed glyph may have been part of the sizing up ritual that two rams often go through before they really start butting heads. Here’s a picture of what that looks like.
This double-headed ram is a fairly common glyph, and you see it both in the great basin and Anastasi style glyphs. Sometimes they have only four legs and sometimes they have extra legs.
On his way to water. Countless generations have stood on this very spot making sure it was safe to proceed
