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"Get Up Off Your Gifts" my presentation at Unity Church of Kalamazoo is YouTube. Watch it here. The entire Sunday ministry lasts one hour. My meditation begins at 15:30, and my talk at 25:00.
Today's story, experienced April 2 - 21, 2022:
My intention when I arrived in Valley of the Gods on April 2 was to boondock in that beautiful desert for the Biblical “40 days and 40 nights.”
I camped there for 17. I also camped for three days on private property within nearby Monument Valley.
There, I was on the Navajo Reservation where, if not for permission of the landowner, Nathan Eaglespeaks Sutherland, I would have been trespassing on tribal land.
So, I consoled myself by saying that I was there “half of the 40.”
Besides, I justified, “40” in Biblical terms, is not a precise duration but rather a designation of an important time period. For me, 20 days and 20 nights fits that description.
Valley of the Gods is a beautiful Cedar Mesa of sandstone monoliths, pinnacles, and other geological features that were eroded by wind and water over eons of time.
The color is primarily rust-red due to oxidization of sandstone rocks and soil that were deposited 65 to 145 million years ago when this part of the continent was covered with the Western Interior Seaway.
The dimensions of those ancient benthic deposits range from house-size boulders to grains of sand so fine as to feel silky smooth and small enough when the wind blows—which is every day—to permeate truck and trailer, clothing and skin.
Many of the pebbles, cobbles, and stones are cleaved into flat, shale-like pieces and are not anchored to their neighbors, thus creating unfastened footing on the sloping face of the buttes or the sidewalls of the arroyos.
This surface is dotted with shrubs, the size of a balance ball, spaced far enough apart to make for easy passage around them.
Most are the color of aged silver-gray, and fewer than half are green with leaves. Distant hillsides, in the principle of pointillism, take on a hue of mint green rather than the underlying rust red.
The Valley of the Gods Road, a 17-mile loop of gravel, clay, and rock, twists and twines through the valley.
The entrance off US-163 is a steep downward grade with a sharp curve to the right that leads across the West Branch of Lime Creek with several pools of standing water.
Warnings say not to enter the creek, or any wash, if flowing water is present, and a sign cautions that the road is impassible when wet.
While I witnessed only a few minutes of rain one night, I did see evidence of this latter caution in the form of human footprints molded two-inches deep into the surface soil; they were encrusted as though they would last forever ... or until the next rainstorm.
Yet, the advisories have merit. There are 96 washes that cross Valley of the Gods Road. Most are shallow, a few inches to a few feet deep, but some, including the West Branch of Lime Creek, are large enough to swallow a full-size RV.
While the topography here swells up and down, there are several dozen flatter places where boondockers can set up camp; most of those were occupied while I was there.
My first campsite was semi-secluded on the east side of The Seven Sailors, one of 20 principal rock formations that have resisted erosion and, thus, retain a stellar height to tower 300 to 400 feet above the surrounding, washed-away terrain.
I camped there two nights then drove my truck and trailer 30 miles to Goulding’s RV Park, which is a fairly large commercial complex within Monument Valley that includes an indoor pool and laundry, a decent grocery store with fresh produce, a nice restaurant, a museum, a gift shop, and a tiny movie theater.
The movies are free to guests. They are old John Wayne flicks, produced by John Ford, and all shot in Monument Valley: Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and The Searchers (1956).
The history of movies filmed in Monument Valley by Ford and others is fascinating, and I’ll write more about that in a future blog.
At Gouldings, I emptied my waste tanks, filled my potable water tanks, washed clothes, and took a couple of dips in the pool.
When I returned to Valley of the Gods on Wednesday, April 6, I camped close to two other principal rock formations, Setting Hen and Rooster. I also was visibly close to Valley of the Gods Road.
The appellation for The Seven Sailors is apropos. It consists of a group of seven columns, each topped with a broad, flat rock akin to the caps worn by sail training cadets.
Setting Hen requires a certain degree of imagination. I could identify the profile of her back, but her neck and head just aren’t high enough to simulate barnyard fowl. Rather, I saw an ancient sailing vessel with swayback gunnels at midship and a blunt prow.
And Rooster? Well, Rooster must have been named because of his proximity to Setting Hen. From the south, I saw a stubby teddy bear with stubby arms outstretched to give a stubby hug. From the north, the top rock gives the appearance of a carved eagle’s head atop an Inuit totem pole.
Various persons—RVers, tenters, hikers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, Jeepsters, equestrians with dogs—passed by my trailer. Many stopped to capture a photo image of Rooster and Setting Hen. Often, these people waved. A few shared conversation.
One day, three women on horseback came by with their two dogs, one with its tongue hanging out in the universal canine signal of “I’m thirsty.” So I offered water from a six-gallon jug that I carried in the back of my truck, my “garage.”
Both dogs and all three horses imbibed while the women and I chatted for a few minutes.
They said the only animals here are cows, coyotes, mule deer, and wild horses. I saw only seven cows in one group grazing on extremely sparse vegetation and dozens of tiny lizards that scooted across my path when I hiked.
I was glad there were no bears or scorpions. Snakes, I understood, might be present when the daytime temperatures warm. A few black flies buzzed about. Otherwise, there were no bugs.
In summary, I was comfortable in Valley of the Gods where I had the opportunity to touch Mother Earth and connect with my eternal soul in my unique way. That was what I went there to do, and I am grateful for having fulfilled that purpose.
I was also grateful when I chose to leave after only half of my intended duration.
I was even more grateful when, a few days later, I cleaned my truck and trailer, ceiling to floor, and removed the layer of red sand dust that had permeated everything.
As a mechanical precaution, I had sand cleaned from the truck’s wheels and brakes at an auto repair shop in Moab and the same done to the trailer wheels and brakes at Camping World in St. George.
The deserts of southeast Utah are truly beautiful places ... to visit. To live there requires a hardiness of soul.
In future blogs, you will read about the boondocking protocols that I adopted, about my hiking adventures, and about Nathan Eaglespeaks Sutherland, the Navajo jeweler and artist who is one of those hardy souls.
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Photo below is my truck and trailer boondocked within sight of The Seven Sailors, seven rock formations in a group all capped with "caps" that have a wider diameter than the columns below. The distance between my rig and the formation is about 1/2 mile of strenuous up-and-down walking.
