Corona stories: 04/24/20

Desert solitaire

In 1988 I got the chance for a stay as a post doc in California. At first, I was quite reluctant. However, in my field, there were no universities of comparable reputation anywhere else in the world. My reluctance vanished quickly. The openness and helpfulness of people, new friends and loads of adventures made me come back at least a dozen times since then. I bought a little Mitsubishi Colt and in the first year of my stay I drove 55000 miles. In the trunk I had a cooler, tent, sleeping bag, cooking and hiking equipment ready to use. Friday afternoon, I went to the supermarket, charged the cooler with steaks, cans, beer and ice and drove to the next unknown place…. sometimes for most of the night. Monday morning I was back at University. The landscape was so dramatic, that sometimes after crossing a ridge and taking in the view, I was close to tears. After two years I had taken 7000 slides, which most are still not sorted out.

The white limestone plateaus of Canyonlands

After some time I met Wolfgang, and since that time, more than 30 years ago, he is one of my best friends. When I come to the american west, I never miss to visit him in his wolves den in the sierra foothills. One time he was supposed to pick me up at the airport, but was not there. I tried to call him, no answer. He came hours late and it turned out that he came right from the hospital where his wife had just given birth to his daughter Hannah. Once we ran late and had to set up tent along the road at night. The sandy spot invited to walk barefoot. Suddenly Wolfgang pointed his flashlight at an insect on the ground: „look, what a funny insect“, he said. The insect was a scorpion. We quickly put on our shoes again and checked the inside of our tents.

Setting up tents

Ready for a beer

Wolfgang owned a Mitsubishi Pajero, a rather little 4X4, but one of the best cars for short off road trips I have been in. It was one of the last 4x4’s built from solid steel, and except that once we lost a license plate when we bumped in a washed out creek too heavily, I cannot remember that ever anything was broken on one of the rough trips.

Wulfi preparing the usual breakfast of eggs, bacon and the potatoes left over from the previous dinner

One of our favourite destinations was Canyonlands National Park in Utah, roughly 700 miles from our base in Pasadena. A trip would start on Friday late afternoon to avoid the LA weekend rush hour and after carefully watching the radar detector on route we would be ready to set up our tents in one of the then basically undeveloped camp-grounds of the park some time after 3 in the morning.

The white rim mining road around Islands in the sky in Canyonlands

Canyonlands has three parts, separated by the Colorado and Green rivers: Needles, The Maze and Island in the sky. The latter has an old mining road, which allows an about 100 km long round trip through rough terrain along the rivers. It took us three days to do it.

The rocks of canyonlands are in layers of red sandstone and white, harder limestone. The limestone forms the plateaus

Island in the sky is a triangular sandstone plateau. Two sides of the plateau sharply fall down to the Colorado and Green River over a couple of intermediate plateaus. The plateaus are torn apart by rugged crevasses. The geology is striking. The road was built during WWII to prospect for Uranium mining. Fortunately they never did any mining. In our time the road was rough and undeveloped. The state of the park at that time is best described in Edward Abbey’s epic non-fiction book “desert solitaire”. The descent between the plateaus and the crossing of the crevasses were the challenge. But this was rewarded with incredible views, and after arrival at the river, with a dip in the brown, tepid, muddy waters. The days ended with setting up tents in deserted spots – we never had anybody around us - a campfire, barbecued steaks with beans and potatoes and cans of beer. Although, since the ice did not last for three days, the beer got warmer the further we got. And then, in the cold nights of the high desert, an incredible night sky full of stars. And when lucky, you could spot a roadrunner after opening the tent at the first morning light.

Sunset over a campsite near the river

In 2016, almost 800.000 visitors came to Canyonlands. For its size, this is still a small number compared to little Arches National Park next door, which receives 1.5 million. In August 2011 I went there with Lotte and Hannah, and we still were the only visitors to the camp-ground in the Needles part of the park. As Abbey has described it in his fascinating book, the west is and should be a land of ghosts, solitude and meditation. Although the most popular spots are overrun now, there is still lots to explore and lots of spots to enjoy the solitude.