After 2 months at Bodhi Farm, in May I embarked on my forward journey. Planning it out while at Bodhi, I had a lovely fantasy of finally spending a week living alone on public land. I’d meditate, write, read, cook over a fire, work on some crafts. Live it up! Well, no such luck. I had a jam-packed three weeks leading up to my flight back to New York (my first visit to NY in 6 months). In this post, I’m going to try to catch you up on my adventures during those 3 weeks in May.
Ghost Pony Gallery
My first stop after Bodhi Farm was paying a visit to Trish and Leonardo, who run and live in a small gallery of their own art in Truchas, NM. Back in March, I’d driven past them on the highway in New Mexico, and they loved my message on the back of the van (Be kind. Notice the Magick. Stay Curious.) and decided to reach out to me through my blog! I was delighted to hear from them, as they were the first people in 6 months of travel to look me up in this way, despite my Instagram handle proudly displayed on my bumper. Trish and Leonardo were wonderful company. Leonardo, who has fascinating stories from his life, including going to Burning Man in the 90s and growing up in South Africa during apartheid, showed me his work cultivating a large garden in the back. Trish regaled me with stories of her life in the publishing industry, and now as a professional artist. They both proudly showed me their stunning art and the home that they’ve worked a lot on and turned into a beautiful shared space imbued with love and character. They generously shared dinner with me before guiding me to lovely spot to stay the night in the Carson National forest.
Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park
From Truchas, I took a meandering path through southern Colorado toward Utah. I made a short stop in Abiquiu, NM, drove past Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch and the Echo Amphitheater, and I stayed two nights in the San Juan National Forest (where I did manage to fit in one day of lounging in nature).
Echo Amphitheater 
My lounging site
The only way to access this tribal park (think of it as a “national” park designated and set aside by the sovereign government of the tribe) is with a guided tour. I booked one and met Ricky for a morning tour, where I happened to be the only one who showed up. Ricky took me to several sites where there had been settlements at some point in the last thousand years or so. I was expecting to get a history of the Ute people, but I came to understand that the Ute history is inextricably tied up with the history of many of the indigenous people in the area. For centuries, the Utes were nomadic hunters who would go as far as the Great Plains to hunt bison. “Whenever you’d see the Utes coming, you knew they had something good,” Ricky told me with a chuckle. The Hopis were (and I suppose still are) the keepers of the spiritual history of the different peoples. Ricky told me several stories of their lore, which he said he’d gotten permission from a Hopi holy man to share. So much of the lore seems focused on cyclicality: the world has existed many times before, and it will be destroyed again and exist again. Certainly, there is reverence for nature and natural forces, and there is an orientation toward our actions being for the next generations, not for ourselves. Ricky also admitted to me some sense of tragedy that the young Ute people are focused more on modernity (their phones, Ricky said) than on learning their culture and history. Most Utes, he said, have hardly explored the 125,000 acres of the tribal park. And few people attend sweat lodge ceremonies and sun dances that he and his son still attend regularly.
What I learned about the petroglyph sites was very interesting. The petroglyphs often represent different bands, many of them Puebloan, that settled in a spot over the centuries. It might be a few months, or it might be a few decades. They would mark the site with a symbol of their clan (e.g., the Snake Clan), or a symbol of their mythology, or sometimes just a friendly handprint signifying “all’s well,” as Ricky put it. There were also some sites where some groups would create solstice markers, often by bands that were specifically skilled at understanding the solar calendar. A solstice marker is a petroglyph symbol that is located such that, on the solstice, a shadow is cast directly through the symbol. Pretty amazing. But each petroglyph site depicts centuries (or more) of history of people who called a place home, and who willingly moved on when the time came to do so.
This visit helped advance my sense of the wonderfully complex and sophisticated societies and inter-society systems, beliefs, economies, and histories that existed all over the western hemisphere before Europeans came and savagely obliterated it all (and continue to do so, frankly).
Moab
My meander toward Utah had the destination of meeting my friend Thea and her partner Matthew, who were renting a house in Moab for the month of May. I know Thea through the NYC Burning Man community, and I was especially keen to connect with her as she’s been on her own intentional journey: quitting her job, leaving NYC, buying a camper, and diving into mindfulness and Buddhism. This felt like an important encounter for me to have. I had several meaningful moments and experiences in Moab. Most memorably were: my feelings of peace and comfort sitting on the back patio of the house; practicing mindful eating with Matthew and Thea on a Zoom session on mindful eating through Thea’s mindfulness community; and a long hike-cum-conversation with Thea where she gave me a lot to think about regarding my mindfulness practice. In particular, Thea asked me questions about the progression of my meditation practice that helped me realize that I’ve been stagnating and resting in comfort for too long. After this conversation, I committed to going on retreat this summer.Of course, Moab is known as a launching point for Utah’s breathtaking outdoors activities, and I was very fortunate to have Thea and Matthew as my guides and activity partners. Some of the activities included:
Touring Canyonlands National Park
Touring Arches National Park
Kayaking down the Colorado River
Sunset at Dead Horse State Park
Utah Wandering
From Moab, I selected a path toward Las Vegas that hit some natural attractions I was interested in. I’m pleased to feel like I got a really nice tasting of much of what that small and incredibly beautiful part of the country has on offer.
Little Wild Horse Canyon & Bell Canyon
I’d heard about slot canyons, and I wanted to go play in them. A slot canyon is an especially narrow canyon, often squeezing down to a sliver. Utah has a very high concentration of slot canyons. Little Wild Horse Canyon came recommended in a few blogs, and it was marvelous! I try to avoid out-and-back trails, because I’m averse to retracing my steps, when possible. So I opted to do a loop with Bell Canyon, which involved a few miles walking along a dirt road in pretty-intense sun with pretty meh scenery. And Bell Canyon turned out not to be a slot canyon. So maybe I actually would have enjoyed doing an out-and-back hike through Little Wild Horse.Upon completion of my loop, I hit the road toward Capitol Reef National Park. Of course, in classic Mystic fashion, I took some backroads that ended up being more treacherous than expected.
Factory Butte
I had read up on Factory Butte as an impressive outcropping amongst bizarre landscapes that was a favorite among off-roading enthusiasts. Naturally, I directed Google Maps to get me there on the most-direct path. Of course, the most-direct path is often through treacherous backroads that I have no business traversing in my low-clearance minivan. (Although I will say that the all-wheel drive is a real asset; and if I had higher clearance, I’d be unstoppable; but as it is, I know my limits.) Anyway, once I got past some 45-degree inclines, an undercarriage-busting boulder, and traversing a shallow stream, I was enchanted by another truly alien landscape, very different from the others I’d seen before. After reading some signage to understand where I was able to drive, I found a surreal spot to spend the night.
Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef is the least-popular of Utah’s five national parks, so I didn’t have high expectations for this park. I was really marvelously delighted at what I discovered. The name refers to the obtrusive ridge of white sandstone (reminiscent of capitol buildings) that was nearly impassible to early explorers and Mormons. It was named a reef for the way it obstructed travel, much as a reef does at sea. Among the folds of this reef is a fertile paradise, where settlers planted orchards whose fruit are now available to visitors to eat (anything you take with you should be paid for).
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
I next explored the vast national monument (a land designation made by the BLM) of Grand Staircase-Escalante. It’s a massive piece of land in southwest Utah administered jointly by BLM, NPS, and NFS. My first stop was another slot canyon: Zebra Canyon. It took about an hour to hike to the entrance of the canyon, but (and) I was so delighted by what I found. This canyon was tight! It’s not the tightest canyon around (Spooky Canyon can be 10 inches wide at parts, and all sources online warn claustrophobes to avoid it), but it was cozy! You can see from the photos that some creative navigation was required. I made a couple friends in there, who were a bit less nimble than I was. At some point, I hit a section of the canyon that was too treacherous to pass, so I turned around and went back the way I came (with a detour to another tunnel canyon).
The next morning, I decided to see if I could get a much-coveted permit to visit The Wave, a beautiful wilderness of flowing rocks popularized by a photo featured on a Windows home screen, of all places. They lottery out half the permits months in advance, and the other half are lotteried the morning before. About 100 people showed up at 8am at a community center gymnasium in Kanab, UT. After stern instructions, a staff member from BLM spun the lotto globe and announced a series of numbers. Only about 10 people win each day, and I did not win in the two mornings I tried. Although a happy story is that, on my second day, there was a guy near me who won and was clearly elated. He told me that he had been coming for 30 consecutive mornings, and this was his last chance before he had to leave the area. Great success!
After my first morning lottery, I checked out the Cottonwood Narrows trail. (A narrows is a narrow canyon, but not as narrow as a slot canyon.) It was a pleasant walk through a canyon, but I of course had to make it more interesting by taking some side ventures. One of these included hiking up a steep side of the canyon in order to get back to the road, because I had walked the canyon past the exit, and I (as always) felt morally opposed to retracing my steps. This climb wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done, but I enjoyed it a lot, and it just affirmed that I really need to get into formal rock climbing and/or bouldering.
That evening, I had a very special experience. I decided to stay on some BLM land, which was behind a closed gate to keep wildlife from entering the roadway. (Side note for any would-be vanlifers: just because there’s a closed gate doesn’t mean it’s off limits. Gates to accessible roads are often closed to keep wildlife or livestock from escaping. If it’s a public road, there’s no signage telling you not to enter, and it’s not locked, then have at it! Just close the gate behind you.) When I found a suitable spot to stay the night, I noticed some horses in the distance. I was used to camping around animals, so I went about my business. Next thing I knew, the herd of 10 or so horses was approaching my car and had no compunction about getting friendly. Several of them came right up to me! I petted several of them on the face and back, and one blonde-haired beauty even stayed behind to hang out for a bit after the herd had lost interest and moved on. I was so smitten and enchanted. The next morning, I came across the herd on my way out, and I stopped to feed them a sweet potato that I had. I don’t know if these horses were feral or owned (they had no markings), but this was one of the most amazing experiences. Some friends told me that horses are very attuned to a person’s energy (they’re commonly used for therapy), and their comfort with me said something about my energy. Whatever it was, it confirmed once more my need to have animals in my life.
Zion National Park
After my second failed Wave lottery, I decided last minute to visit Zion National Park. I’d been there in winter 2018, but I figured it was so close and so beautiful, why not check it out again. I’d heard it was incredibly popular and that I would need to reserve a shuttle ticket in advance (which I did from Grand Staircase-Escalante) in order to get further up the canyon. Its popularity was aggressively confirmed when I faced a long line to enter the park, and then huge amounts of traffic to get through a tunnel (that had to be regularly blocked in one direction to allow RVs through the narrow space). Then when I arrived at the visitor’s center, I circled looking for parking for 30 minutes, with the cherry on top being the absurdly long line for the shuttle. With the alternative parking option being to leave the park, pay for parking in a nearby town, and take a shuttle back into the park, I was ready to cut my losses and leave the park. I’d enjoyed the drive, and there was no need to waste more time waiting around.
Well, Zion had another plan for me, and I stumbled upon a parking spot in another lot. I knew waiting in line to ride a shuttle was out of the question for me (New Yorkers fall into two categories: those who wait in lines and those who don’t; guess which one I am). So I set off to walk the 5 miles up the canyon. As I’ve often found when I forge my own path (which I very commonly do – something about needing to be different and feel special), my experience was beautiful. I hiked along the Virgin River all the way up to the Zion Lodge.
From there, I took the shuttle (after some friction due to the fact that I hadn’t gotten a wristband down at the visitor’s center) up the canyon and took the nature walk to the start of the Zion Narrows hike. After that walk, I again refused to wait in the absurdly long line for the shuttle back down, so I walked to the next shuttle stop and hopped on the next shuttle to come by! All in all, I had a beautiful time doing Zion my way, rather than the popular way.
Grand Canyon (North Rim)
My last stop before Las Vegas was the Grand Canyon. I stayed the night in the Kaibab National Forest, just outside the park. On my way in, I decided to stop for some (surprisingly delicious) coffee being served out of a trailer next to a gas station. When there, I got talking to a fellow about my age named Brandon, who was originally from NYC and was doing some touring around in his Toyota 4Runner! We hit it off nicely, and we very happily decided to explore the park together. We took in the views together, and we had some deep conversations. I went “Full Mystic” on poor Brandon, explaining to him my views on how far humanity has strayed from what’s most aligned with our natures. I don’t push these things too far with most people, but I sensed that Brandon was thoughtful, intelligent, a critical thinker, open-minded, and extremely curious. I know I gave him a lot to think about, and I hope he will continue to consider these ideas! One impasse that we came to was that Brandon believes that humans need to be compelled or incentivized to do things and lack intrinsic motivation. Whereas I believe that everyone has motivation to do something, and that if they need to be forced (or incentivized), then maybe they shouldn’t be doing it. I contend that all of our basic needs as a society could be met with everyone doing things voluntarily (without coercion of any sort – physical, emotional, economic, etc.). Brandon just doesn’t think that’s possible. But my stance is: why not try and see what happens?
The scenery of the Grand Canyon itself is hard to describe and hard to convey in photos. My initial reaction was, to my surprise, something like numbness, rather than awe. I suspect it’s because my brain didn’t really know how to process what I was seeing. The scale is just so massive and unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Obviously, it’s beautiful. But it’s really just hard to comprehend.
Car troubles
One final story, before I leave you. After the Grand Canyon, I had one more day and a night to burn before I was expected in Las Vegas. I decided to find myself a nice shady spot on BLM land somewhere along the way. I scoped out a river bed by Beaver Dam, AZ, and I pointed my GPS there. The BLM roads into that area were dusty, but nothing too bad. As I started heading toward the river bed, there were some sandy, hilly paths, but my all-wheel drive managed them alright. I found myself a shay spot inside some tamarisk trees, and set up camp for some R&R. Unfortunately, it was very hot and I was plagued by bugs. It wasn’t the most comfortable. I decided to move the van onto the rocky streambed for dinner. And that was when I found my minivan stuck for the first time in 9 months. I wasn’t far from the highway or civilization, and I had great cell service – not a bad place to be stuck. I tried digging. I tried using my floormats for tractions. Just as I was looking up numbers for a tow, I see a massive Ford F-350 truck heading toward me. I’m saved! His name was Levi, and he and his young son were exploring after having recently moved to the area from Utah. He was reserved, but he agreed to help me. He pulled to the side of the sandy road to turn around, and he promptly got stuck. With each gunning of the engine, he dug himself in more. Well, now we were two peas in a sandy pod.
I called a nearby tow company, and the friendly guy said he’d have no trouble helping us out, and he’d be there in 30 minutes. I made myself some eggs on my stove, and Levi and I got to know each other a bit. He seems like a private guy, so I won’t even share any details here. But he seems like a sweet guy who’s had some bad luck and maybe has had trouble finding people in the world who understand him. I told him about Burning Man, and I hope he will check it out.
The tow guy showed up in a tiny Jeep Wrangler with a powerful winch in the front. He first yanked Levi out (and then once more further up the road when he got stuck again). It turned out the 4×4 wasn’t turned on in Levi’s truck, which would explain his troubles. He then yanked me out, and we discovered that my issue was that my low undercarriage was stuck on a mound. In all likelihood, if I’d had higher clearance, I may never have gotten stuck! Anyway, after the day I had, I found myself a safe place to sleep, and the next day I continued on to Las Vegas!
Lots more stories and musings to come… gradually 🙂 Wander on, my friends!