Utah Canyon Country

Prime real estate

April 18 through 21 was the annual "birthday trip" for MK, Scot and me. We went backpacking in a place called Grand Gulch. It is a classic southern Utah canyon, with many ancestral Puebloan  ruins and petroglyphs.  I love being in a wilderness setting with reminders of a primitive past.  My imagination was working overtime trying to visualize daily life for the people that once inhabited these rock homes set into the steep cliffs.
    There is a profound silence in the desert that always makes me think. One of the strange thoughts I followed for a while was that human beings may owe our "success" as a species to our tendency to not like one another. Fighting over water or hunting grounds caused our ancestors to move in search of other resources. Whether it is a small scale, like a girl running off to be with a boy from another tribe, or large scale, like moving to a new continent, conflict has lead to a diverse gene pool and the proliferation of homo sapien in nearly every corner of the globe. I realize in many ways that is just natural selection. It does seem, however, that people often don't like each other even if there is no direct competition. Something as simple as manners or customs can create some severe conflict, even when we should probably be worrying about having enough to eat.

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One of the many amazingly preserved structures

                                                         Sunrise on the second morning

                                                         Pictographs- We almost missed these

Cottonwoods and sandstone for miles and miles

    Well, that is my half-educated ramble. Anyone out there with a background in anthropology, try not to laugh to hard. That is just the kind of stoner pseudo philosophy that runs through my head when I hike for multiple hours. I will say this. I encourage everyone to sleep on the ground more often. Sit by a river and imagine gathering food and living for pure survival. Think about where the energy to perform all the mundane task of our lives comes from. Go somewhere quiet enough to allow your senses to become acute once again. Maybe we will change how we live. Maybe not.  I don't think it can hurt.