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.
When you walk the desert quietly and alone long enough you quit observing it in a conscious manner, and you learn things in the silence of the desert. There are all kinds of things you can contemplate and learn if you accept silence of the desert and walk alone. You
We have a beautiful example of this, in this petroglyph. It is an ancient story, told in an ancient way, by an ancient people. Yet this image, this story, transcends the time and culture that made it. It is a story that is still told around a few campfire today,
When walking the desert in the summer time heat one finds there is a stillness on the land. The stark blue sky without any clouds is motionless, and all the animals or deep in their burrows or hiding in what little shade they can find. In contrast to this, the
To understand any terrestrial environment one must know how to track and read sign. This skill allows you extend your awareness through time and distance. Part of this skill is understanding game trails, thus allowing you to look back much deeper in time than just tracking. This knowledge is a
BGG 25 will be 30 years old next year. What is BGG 25 ? It is “Big-Game Guzzler number 25”. More precisely it is a artificial water source meant to help out the desert bighorn sheep. It is the 25th artificial water source installed by the Society For The Conservation
In this day and age, of electric lights and telescopes, the cultural influence of the moon has changed. In our hunter gatherer past everybody would have lived by, and understood the ever-changing yet predictable cycles of the moon. Watching the night sky from their campfires our ancestors saw the moon
Perhaps a 1000 summers have come and gone since this glyph was etched into the stone, and yet it story is as clear and precise as the day it was made. This story is a moment in time that was treasured by an individual. To truly understand this moment we
Like many desert bighorn sheep populations in the distant past the newberry population was large and vibrant. It was hunted by the ancient people that inhabited this land as a valued food source. Then in a process that happened throughout the Southwest the Newberry sheep were affected by disease, habitat
Through the centuries, mankind has often speculated on what is the true nature of time and how it works and we currently have a scientific understanding of time, that is sometimes referred to as space-time. We also have a cultural idea of time that allows for all kinds of things
The campfire is one of the things that truly define humanity and one could even say that we really weren’t really humans until we had fire. And it is interesting to note that many campfire traditions that were known to our ancestors are still practiced and are still relevant in
Today most of us would think that a discussion on shamanism and hunting magic to be purely academic. However I think that a proper understanding of ancient shamanism and hunting magic is necessary to understand our modern environmental movement and the philosophies that exist within it. For instance many people
Most people today come from a modern urban culture and can no longer make a kill nor can they walk barefoot across the desert or drink the water from the rivers and streams that are there. We cannot make a kill due to mental blocks that has developed in the
