STRANGERS in a STRANGE LAND ‘Foreigners’ from Near and Far Are Fascinated by the American West April 13, 2015 | $5 | Vol

SPECIAL TRAVEL ISSUE

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND ‘Foreigners’ from near and far are fascinated by the American West April 13, 2015 | $5 | Vol. 47 No. 6 | www.hcn.org No. 47 | $5 Vol. 2015 April 13, Editor’s note

High Country News Executive director/Publisher Strangers in a Paul Larmer MANAGING Editor familiar land Jodi Peterson SENIOR EDITOR A few years ago, my family Jonathan Thompson and I lived for a while in Art director Germany. Soon after we Cindy Wehling returned, we went for a ASSOCIATE editor hike in the Bisti/De-Na- Brian Calvert ONLINE EDITOR Tay Wiles Zin Wilderness Area in D.C. Correspondent northwestern New Mexico. Elizabeth Shogren Bisti is surely one of the WRITERS ON THE RANGE weirder and more obscure editor Betsy Marston wilderness areas out there, a collection of Associate designer Brooke Warren otherworldly rock formations and badlands,

Copy editOR Diane Sylvain surrounded by high desert grazing land and arren Contributing editorS oil and gas wells. It sharply contrasts with the W

Cally Carswell, Craig soaring peaks, wildflower meadows and crashing

Childs, Sarah Gilman, rooke 14 Judith Lewis Mernit, whitewater in the Weminuche Wilderness, just B Jeremy Miller, Sierra a couple hours north, and is not nearly as well Crane-Murdoch, Michelle known as Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon or the Nijhuis, Josh Zaffos CorrespondentS region’s other landmarks. Ben Goldfarb I figured we’d have the place to ourselves — Krista Langlois besides the cows that had broken through the Editorial Fellow Sarah Tory fence — so when we saw a few cars in the dirt Interns parking lot, at least half of them with non-New Strangers in a Kindra McQuillan Kate Schimel Mexico plates, I was surprised. I was even more Associate Publisher surprised to see, in the hikers’ register, that many FEATURE ESSAYS Alexis Halbert recent visitors had come from Switzerland, France, Development Manager even Lithuania. That Europeans were in New By Judith Lewis Mernit Alyssa Pinkerton 14 The West in 72 Hours Development Assistant Mexico wasn’t unusual — the foreign fascination Christine List for the American West is well known. But in Bisti? Asian tourists look for space, spectacles Subscriptions MARKETER Surely they must be lost. and a decent bowl of noodles JoAnn Kalenak About a half-mile into our hike, we WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel encountered a German family and asked them Community ENGAGEMENT what brought them to Bisti. They said they’d Gretchen King insidE accountant Beckie Avera been looking for somewhere to pause during the Financial adviser long drive between Mesa Verde and the Grand Paul Gibb Canyon, and saw Bisti on a German website. And 5 Travelers from afar Circulation manager they loved it. International tourists in the West, by the numbers By Jonathan Thompson Tammy York Later, I went in search of the website and Circulation Systems admin. 6 Where the heck am I? A public-lands flowchart By Kindra McQuillan Kathy Martinez found not one, but several travelogues from Circulation Germans in the American West. To my (admittedly 8 On the road with America’s sightseers Doris Teel, Kati Johnson, chauvinistic) surprise, they wanted more than A photographer looks at three decades of tourism Photos by Roger Minick Stephanie Kyle the stereotypical big-ticket destinations, and Advertising Director so they encouraged their fellow countrymen 10 Extraterrestrial weekend David J. Anderson By Sarah Gilman Advertising Sales to leave the beaten path in search of obscure Dispatches from a dryland alien in Portland Jenny Hill spots that even many locals haven’t visited. Their Margaret Gilfoyle 23 Readers’ foreign travel tales fascinating descriptions — of hidden slot canyons By Erica Berry and other readers GrantWriter Janet Reasoner and little-known ancient pueblos — allowed me to Winners of an HCN essay contest FOUNDER Tom Bell see places that I thought I knew intimately in a 48 My shattered, unquenchable romance with the West By Udo Zindel [email protected] new light, through the eyes of those to whom the [email protected] 50 Raccoonboy’s guide to exploring the urban wilds By Leath Tonino [email protected] wilderness and wide-open skies of the West are [email protected] downright alien. Board of Directors This international-tourism themed edition John Belkin, Colo. of High Country News’ annual Travel Issue is Sean Benton, Mont. designed to help you see our home through more Web Only hcn.org Beth Conover, Colo. Jay Dean, Calif. or less “foreign” eyes — whether they belong to Bob Fulkerson, Nev. Asian tourists on a tour bus through the Mojave, Wayne Hare, Colo. Laura Helmuth, Md. or Colorado children in the backwaters of Alaska. John Heyneman, Wyo. “Raccoonboy” will guide you through your Nicole Lampe, Ore. unexpectedly foreign backyard, and a flowchart Wendy Pabich, Idaho Marla Painter, N.M. will let you know what kind of public land you’re Who should Lou Patterson, Colo. visiting. We even have an “extraterrestrial” Dan Stonington, Wash. manage Grand Rick Tallman, Colo. correspondent to guide wandering aliens (like you Luis Torres, N.M. and me) through the wilds of Portland. Because Teton’s private Andy Wiessner, Colo. the West is always mysterious if you approach it Florence Williams, D.C. inholdings? with open eyes. In the end, we’re all just visitors Ben Goldfarb reports on here. how a wolf shooting created High We hope you enjoy this detour away from jurisdictional confusion, and Country our regular content, and that it helps you see the what it means for Western West anew. lands management. News hcne.ws/grandtetonwolf Printed on recycled paper. —Jonathan Thompson, senior editor Daryl Hunter

High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent media organization that covers the issues that define human communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Ave., the American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the region’s diverse natural and Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High

2 High Country News April 13, 2015 Editor’s notE

High Country News ExEcutivE dirEctor/PublishEr Strangers in a Paul Larmer MANAGiNG Editor familiar land Jodi Peterson sENior Editor A few years ago, my family Jonathan Thompson and I lived for a while in Art dirEctor Germany. Soon after we Cindy Wehling returned, we went for a AssociAtE Editor hike in the Bisti/De-Na- Brian Calvert oNliNE Editor Tay Wiles Zin Wilderness Area in d.c. corrEsPoNdENt northwestern New Mexico. Elizabeth Shogren Bisti is surely one of the WritErs oN thE rANGE weirder and more obscure Editor Betsy Marston wilderness areas out there, a collection of AssociAtE dEsiGNEr Brooke Warren otherworldly rock formations and badlands, coPy Editor Diane Sylvain surrounded by high desert grazing land and ARREN coNtributiNG Editors oil and gas wells. It sharply contrasts with the

Cally Carswell, Craig soaring peaks, wildflower meadows and crashing

Childs, Sarah Gilman, W ROOKE 14 Judith Lewis Mernit, whitewater in the Weminuche Wilderness, just B Jeremy Miller, Sierra a couple hours north, and is not nearly as well Crane-Murdoch, Michelle known as Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon or the Nijhuis, Josh Zaffos corrEsPoNdENts region’s other landmarks. Ben Goldfarb I figured we’d have the place to ourselves — Krista Langlois besides the cows that had broken through the EditoriAl FElloW Sarah Tory fence — so when we saw a few cars in the dirt iNtErNs parking lot, at least half of them with non-New Strangers in a Kindra McQuillan Kate Schimel Mexico plates, I was surprised. I was even more AssociAtE PublishEr surprised to see, in the hikers’ register, that many FEAtUrE EssAys Alexis Halbert recent visitors had come from Switzerland, France, dEvEloPMENt MANAGEr even Lithuania. That Europeans were in New By Judith Lewis Mernit Alyssa Pinkerton 14 The West in 72 Hours dEvEloPMENt AssistANt Mexico wasn’t unusual — the foreign fascination Christine List for the American West is well known. But in Bisti? Asian tourists look for space, spectacles subscriPtioNs MArKEtEr Surely they must be lost. and a decent bowl of noodles JoAnn Kalenak About a half-mile into our hike, we WEb dEvEloPEr Eric Strebel encountered a German family and asked them coMMuNity ENGAGEMENt what brought them to Bisti. They said they’d Gretchen King insidE AccouNtANt Beckie Avera been looking for somewhere to pause during the FiNANciAl AdvisEr long drive between Mesa Verde and the Grand Paul Gibb Canyon, and saw Bisti on a German website. And 5 Travelers from afar circulAtioN MANAGEr they loved it. International tourists in the West, by the numbers By Jonathan Thompson Tammy York Later, I went in search of the website and circulAtioN systEMs AdMiN. 6 Where the heck am I? A public-lands flowchart By Kindra McQuillan Kathy Martinez found not one, but several travelogues from circulAtioN Germans in the American West. To my (admittedly 8 On the road with America’s sightseers Doris Teel, Kati Johnson, chauvinistic) surprise, they wanted more than A photographer looks at three decades of tourism Photos by Roger Minick Stephanie Kyle the stereotypical big-ticket destinations, and AdvErtisiNG dirEctor so they encouraged their fellow countrymen 10 Extraterrestrial weekend David J. Anderson By Sarah Gilman AdvErtisiNG sAlEs to leave the beaten path in search of obscure Dispatches from a dryland alien in Portland Jenny Hill spots that even many locals haven’t visited. Their Margaret Gilfoyle 23 Readers’ foreign travel tales fascinating descriptions — of hidden slot canyons By Erica Berry and other readers GrANtWritEr Janet Reasoner and little-known ancient pueblos — allowed me to Winners of an HCN essay contest FouNdEr Tom Bell see places that I thought I knew intimately in a 48 My shattered, unquenchable romance with the West By Udo Zindel [email protected] new light, through the eyes of those to whom the [email protected] 50 Raccoonboy’s guide to exploring the urban wilds By Leath Tonino [email protected] wilderness and wide-open skies of the West are [email protected] downright alien. boArd oF dirEctors This international-tourism themed edition John Belkin, Colo. of High Country News’ annual Travel Issue is Sean Benton, Mont. designed to help you see our home through more WEb o nly hcn.org Beth Conover, Colo. Jay Dean, Calif. or less “foreign” eyes — whether they belong to Bob Fulkerson, Nev. Asian tourists on a tour bus through the Mojave, Wayne Hare, Colo. Laura Helmuth, Md. or Colorado children in the backwaters of Alaska. John Heyneman, Wyo. “Raccoonboy” will guide you through your Nicole Lampe, Ore. unexpectedly foreign backyard, and a flowchart Wendy Pabich, Idaho Marla Painter, N.M. will let you know what kind of public land you’re Who should Lou Patterson, Colo. visiting. We even have an “extraterrestrial” Dan Stonington, Wash. manage Grand Rick Tallman, Colo. correspondent to guide wandering aliens (like you Luis Torres, N.M. and me) through the wilds of Portland. Because Teton’s private Andy Wiessner, Colo. the West is always mysterious if you approach it Florence Williams, D.C. inholdings? with open eyes. In the end, we’re all just visitors Ben Goldfarb reports on here. how a wolf shooting created High We hope you enjoy this detour away from jurisdictional confusion, and Country our regular content, and that it helps you see the what it means for Western West anew. lands management. News hcne.ws/grandtetonwolf Printed on recycled paper. —Jonathan Thompson, senior editor DARyL HUNTER

2 High Country News April 13, 2015 CONTRIBUTORS

Craig Childs, an HCN contributing editor, writes from western Colorado. Sarah Gilman, formerly HCN’s associate editor at the home base of Paonia, Colorado, is a contributing Childs editor in Portland, Oregon. Bryce Gladfelter, an adventurer at heart, has traversed the Rockies on a llama, crossed paths with grizzlies in Alaska, and survived Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He illustrates from his log cabin home studio in hilds

C Pennsylvania. raig

C 38 Kindra McQuillan, a recent University of Gilman Montana grad, is an HCN Special editorial intern. Travel Judith Lewis Mernit (shown below left, on strange land Issue right, with Zo Sun-Hwa) is a contributing editor at High Country News. She has also written for Sierra, Capital and Main, 38 Children in Barbaric Country TakePart, The Atlantic, and By Craig Childs the Los Angeles Times. Gladfelter Roger Minick has been making photographs for the past 50 years. His work is included in I dEPARTMENTS permanent collections at The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan 4 DEAR FRIENDS Museum of Art and The Smithsonian. 4 LETTERS Leath Tonino’s writing 11 THE HCN COMMUNITY appears in Orion, The Research Fund COVER Mernit (right) Sun, Sierra, Tricycle, New A giant aluminum England Review and 22 SPECIAL SECTION: TRAVEL MARKETPLACE alien stands outside other publications. He the Alien Research lives in San Francisco and 42 MARKETPLACE Center along Nevada’s edits poetry part-time for the Afghan Women’s Extraterrestrial 52 HEARD AROUND THE WEST Highway. Writing Project. By Betsy Marston Teemu Tuuloskorpi Teemu Tuuloskorpi shot our cover photograph while on a first-time visit to the United States from WARREN his native Finland with fiancée Suvi-Jaana. The couple married in a small Las Vegas chapel, then JOIN THE CONVERSATION stopped to capture the photograph en route to Rather than the feds imposing an arbitrary fee, maybe they should Area 51 in Rachel, Nevada. make it a market with open bidding for grazing rights. Brooke Warren is a “ — Bob Macgregor, commenting on “An Obama administration proposal photojournalist and HCN would more than double grazing fees” hcne.ws/grazingfees” associate designer. Udo Zindel was born in Stuttgart, Germany. He Complete access to subscriber-only content has worked for Southwest German Public Radio HCN’s website iPhone app Since 1987. He spent hcn.org hcne.ws/wuZsWu August 1993 as a visiting Digital edition iPad app journalist with High hcne.ws/digi-4706 hcne.ws/NGtBYx Country News. Currently, he works as a gardener at a former monastery on Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. 800-905-1155. All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See River Neckar. www.hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Zindel

www.hcn.org High Country News 3 DEAR FRIENDS

Kudos for HCN writers

Former HCN intern Nick Neely (spring 2010) Norton & Company) is “equal parts criticism, CORRECTIONS just received the 2015 John Burroughs Nature biography, environmental call-to-arms, and ir- In the March 16 issue, a caption placed Wallowa Essay Award for his essay “The Book of Agate,” repressible personal travelogue.” Jeremy Smith in Washington; it’s in Oregon. in the Fall/Winter 2014-’15 issue of Ninth Letter, just released Epic Measures (HarperCollins), “the In the March 2 issue, for the “Endangered a literary journal from the University of Illinois, true story of a 20-year, 500-scientist, $100-mil- Languages” map, it should be noted that all Urbana-Champaign. Nick is currently a writer- lion moonshot attempt to track and quantify locations are approximate and that Census in-residence at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecol- every illness, injury, and death for everyone on figures are projections, not actual counts. #23, ogy on the Oregon coast. “Neely, who declares Earth. … (to discover) what really hurts us and Cocopah, should have been near Yuma, Arizona, himself a collector of stones and of places, gives what will best improve our health.” and #59, Chemehuevi, on the Colorado River. evidence in this essay that he is also a quietly Yavapai, #43, and Maricopa, #53, should have adroit collector of readers,” wrote the judges. Past NOTE FROM A MISSED VISITOR been switched. #62 is duplicated; the California recipients include Michael Pollan, Rick Bass, Brian Recently, we asked visitors who’d been to our instance should be deleted. #38, Makah, is miss- Doyle and Scott Russell Sanders. Paonia, Colorado, office, but not seen their names ing and should be on the northwest tip of the In March, Ducks Unlimited presented the printed, to contact us. Reader Ray Miller wrote: “I Olympic Peninsula. For the corrected map see 2015 Wetland Achievement Award for Commu- was there in September of last year. It was in the hcne.ws/1EGgfmU. Also, there is a small hand- nications to HCN contributor Hal Herring. Paul midst of congressional election campaigning, envi- ful of surviving speakers of a critically endan- Schmidt, the group’s chief conservation officer, ronmental voting issues, and changes to the HCN gered dialect of Paviotso, all of whom live in lauded Herring for doing a “lengthy and extraor- board, so I see why it happened. I live in Bayfield, Bridgeport, California. Linguist Maziar Toosar- dinary job of covering sportsmen’s issues, water Colorado, and moved here with my wife, Janice, vandani is working with three of them to build a quality and quantity issues, habitat loss from the in September 2013. I retired as lead wetland dictionary and story compendium. Endangered prairies to the Gulf Coast and other conserva- scientist after 20 years with the South Florida Languages Project collaborators also include tion-focused topics.” Congratulations, guys! Water Management District. My wife was a school Eastern Michigan University, First Peoples’ Two of our contributors have new books. administrator. … We are enjoying retirement and Cultural Council, and several other groups. HCN David Gessner journeys across the West, seeking like fly-fishing, hiking, biking and visiting new regrets the errors. the legacy of two iconic writers: Wallace Stegner craft breweries. I am a volunteer for the Colorado and Ed Abbey. All the Wild That Remains (W.W. River Watch program.” Thanks, Ray! —Jodi Peterson for the staff

Letters Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. Prefer tweeting? Try #HCNletters. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

Bold-Face Conquer at some point. The ques- revealed that current groundwater use is slowly tion is: Will they suck all depleting the aquifer. The Plan B battle lines “Unite and Conquer” was the rest of us dry before aren’t limited to rural-vs.-urban Nevada. a puzzling article (HCN, they face it? And as for 3/2/15). I think the title Gretchen DuBois paying for the “research” should have had “Unite” Salt Lake City, Utah through the HCN Re- in very small lower case search Fund, that is disap- and “Conquer” in large, Out-Migration Option pointing, too. You normally capitalized bold face. do much better. I found “Unite and Conquer” fascinating, infor- Your heroine comes mative and thorough. It appears Ms. Mulroy across as an 800-pound Craig Current has moved the Southwest water conversation to gorilla with a typical, to Grand Lake, Colorado greater depths indeed. What I find disappoint- me, Las Vegas attitude: ing, however, is that despite all talk of openness, Give me what I want Mulroy’s Plan B one option is unfortunately dismissed out of or I’ll bury you with my “Unite and Conquer” left hand. Why not spend the billion dollars suggest- money. “Nevada has very out an important fact ed for a groundwater-pumping alternative to pay little water,” Mulroy says, about Mulroy’s Plan B to people to out-migrate and limit future in-migra- “but the one thing I have pump groundwater from tion? The arid Southwest has never been a place is millions and millions of rural eastern Nevada where water exists to support a large human dollars, and I can afford to Las Vegas. At least population. Let’s listen to and respect the Earth to spend years in the part of the groundwater and “nature’s ways” and not attempt to technolo- Supreme Court fighting you all.” For those of in question is shared with Utah and used gize around its given reality. Techno-solutions us who live in the mountains whence the water by ranchers in Utah’s West Desert. In 2013, always lose in the end, despite short-term wins, comes, that is an all-too-familiar refrain. Las Utah Gov. Gary Herbert decided not to sign an and endanger and harm others in the process. Vegas, the Colorado Front Range — pick your de- agreement with Nevada over water rights in the mon. They all think the same, as, unfortunately, Baz Stevens area, which cast doubt on the future of Mulroy’s your author. They decide to build a city where a Freeland, Washington pumping project. In February 2015, the Utah city is unsustainable and then they go looking for Geological Survey released results from a seven- less powerful or wealthy people who have what year hydro-geologic study of groundwater in In from the web they want or “need” and set about scheming how the region. The study indicated that potential Reader comment; more at hcn.org to get it. Can you say “money”? That is not the groundwater development in Nevada and Utah approach I expected HCN to champion. would lower groundwater levels and reduce Delaine Spilsbury: Actually, one name has stuck Funny how Mulroy uses the only real long- spring flow in west central Utah that is used to for Pat Mulroy’s massive pipeline project to take term solution as a threat: “outmigrating 40 mil- support agriculture, sensitive species habitat water from the rest of Nevada. We Rurals call lion people.” The numbers are extreme but the and vegetation for grazing. In addition, the study this economic cannibalism “the Watergrab.” principle behind them is the reality all must face

4 High Country News April 13, 2015 Rank of U.S. Travelers from afar gateways, 2014* International tourists in the5 West, by the numbers 3 L.A. 5 San bia Fran By Jonathan Thompson 17 Sea-Tac abia2 0 Las Vegas *International nonstop flights Germ 5 Where they’re from, Tourism to U.S. from China where they go selected countries 4 United Kingdom 252 3 Percent of visitors to Yosemite National Millions Park in summer 2009 2 Germany who were from a France 0 country other than the200072006 1 United States China LAX. cc via wikipedia Saudi Arabia 0 2009200820072006 2010 2011 20132012

10 10 Top cities/regional areas visited by 20 Top states visited by 13 overseas visitors (and rank) overseas visitors (and rank) 88m Projected number of foreign Percent10 2012 of those who 8 8 2013 were from Germany 2013 visitors to U.S. by 2019. Largest percentage 6 2012 6 2012 of growth:

gov . 172 China

6 4 4 rade .T

Millions of visitors 72 Columbia

21 ravel 47 India : T Numberlio of languages 2 2 used by collective 43 Brazil

respondents to a ources 38 Mexico survey of Yosemite S 2 0 0 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce National Park visitors NY (1) CA (3) NV (5) AZ (12) UT (15) MCO (16) NYC (1) Miami (2) LA (3) San Fran (5) Vegas (6) N. Ariz. (15) Anaheim (?) International Trade AMidministration ns s , in 2009. Languages Fall Travel Forecast, October 2014 included Armenian, 0 Farsi,NYC Mien ( andM ) a Urdu 2) The Wild W est

85 87 88 Percentage of Chinese, German and United Kingdom visitors to the U.S., respectively, who go shopping while on vacation. 78 79 80 36 Percentage who engage in sightseeing. Percent of visitors to Arches National Park in 2003 that were 36 41 37 Percentage who visit national parks Approximate Number of Trip Percent of from countries other or monuments. than the U.S. 460 number of 89 Advisor reviews of 100 Portugese Trip Advisor reviews of Battlefield Vegas, another reviews that gave $18.7 $5.5 $9.8 Bullets and Burgers, a military-grade shooting Battlefield Vegas at least Sources: Yosemite National Park Summer Billions of dollars spent by Chinese, German high-caliber shooting range range for tourists, written in four out of five stars. 2009 Visitor Study and UK visitors to the United States, respec- for tourists outside of Las Portugese. tively, on travel (including education) in 2013. Vegas, written by visitors who identified themselves Source: travel.trade.gov. Icons: thenounproject.com; Romanians Sergio and Laura pose with the big guns at shopping cart: Naomi Atkinson as being from a country Bullets and Burgers in Las Vegas. other than the U.S. Photo courtesy Bullets and Burgers. Statistics: Trip Advisor

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 Start here!

Do you see cow patties? Where the heck am I? There are around 760 million acres of public land scattered across the 11 Western states and Alaska, managed by several different entities, each with its own set of rules and regulations. This can be a bit Why yes! confusing, even for experienced wanderers, so we've put together these Yes, and I Nope, And bathroom (general, playful, by no means set in stone) guidelines to help you stepped in not a plop. facilities too. figure out what kind of public land you're on, and exactly what you a fresh one...

can do on it. All you have to do is look around. KINDRA MCQUILLAN

Is sagebrush the Do you see RVs?

tallest thing around?

Well, I’m taller, Nah. Nope.

but it’s the tallest plant.

You’re on a restricted military bombing range. Duck and cover. The Department of Defense manages 19 million acres of training ranges, Do you see extra-terrestrials Can you spot an oil well or a row military bases, and more. If you see a two-head- disguised as top-secret of fake adobe mini-mansions? ed tortoise, you might be on a nuclear test site. military officers? Leave now.

Why, yes. I can’t. Um, no? Is that what they are?

Are there clear-cuts?

Oh, sh**! You’re probably in Area 51. Is a missile headed Prepare to be abducted directly toward you? and/or “investigated.” Yep, stumps No, unless you Fortunately, all around. count stumps just blue sky under high- overhead. water mark.

You might be on BLM land. Under the Department of You might be on trust land. The You might be in a national forest. the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management manages nation’s 46 million acres of state Under the U.S. Department of over 700 million acres of subsurface minerals and 248 trust land are managed by Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service million acres of surface land for the multiple uses of individual states to generate manages 193 million acres of productivity and enjoyment — mostly mining, grazing, money for local schools, though forest resources — mainly for recreation, and preservation. Originally dismissed as strategies for doing so vary recreation and logging. Bring your land “nobody wanted” because homesteaders rejected it wildly. Some areas are developed tent and dog. You need a permit to (it’s usually arid and un-timbered), BLM surface land is or leased; some are mined, grazed hunt or harvest trees and other now used by millions of recreationists and lots of cows; or logged; some are conserved or “forest products” in designated there are around 18,000 active grazing permits. So preserved for tourism and areas, and you’re welcome to motor enjoy yourself! Camp, hike, four-wheel (on authorized recreation. Often, permits are on open roads and trails. Please trails only, please) and bring your dog. Some restrictions required for recreation here, so don’t burn the forest down with an do apply: Hunting and fishing require permits, for check with your state’s trust ill-maintained campfire, and example, so check first, and watch for grouchy bulls. lands administrator. respect seasonal fire bans.

6 High Country News April 13, 2015 You might be at a state park, managed for your enjoyment and heritage by your state govern- No, but I wish. It would be the ment. There should be lots of opportunities for best way to polite recreation, although probably not hunting remember this trip. and four-wheeling. Plus, you’ll probably need to pay fees for entry and camping. Is there a gift shop where you can buy a T-shirt with a cartoon moose on it?

You might be in a national park! The National Yes, and my Park Service manages over 84 million acres for kids became Junior Rangers. preservation, heritage and enjoyment. That means you can recreate, as long as it doesn’t

interfere with preservation or the enjoyment of

others. Don’t bring your dog, usually, don’t even think about hunting or gathering, much less four-wheeling or mountain-biking, and get ready to pay some fees and rub elbows with the other Do you see mountain bikers 300 million annual national park visitors. on the sick single-track? Consider getting a yearly pass to enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.

Yep, they’re flying Nope. around the curves. You might be in wilderness. The National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and BLM manage around 110 million acres of wilderness to protect its “primeval character.” Generally, you can hike, Are people wearing camp and hunt, but since the goal here is binoculars? preservation, mechanized recreation is not allowed. Then again, because of the varied goals No, and I feel Yep, and I ticked uncool with mine. a few birds off my and histories of the agencies involved, these life list. areas aren't always pristine. Some wilderness areas are even grazed. Enjoy the quiet, but watch for “road apples” (horse manure).

Are there motorboats?

One more thing...

I’m on a boat. Nowhere in sight. Did you enter an Indian reservation and not exit it?

You might be at a national You could be in a national You might be on a state or Yes. Not this time. recreation area or on monument. Managed by the national wildlife refuge. Bureau of Reclamation NPS, USFS, USFWS or BLM, Managed by USFWS or state land, both of which can for scenic and historic fish and game agencies, more sometimes be grazed, preservation and enjoyment, than 90 million acres are set Start at the top! mined or developed and they welcome well-behaved aside for the conservation of also offer recreational visitors, including mountain wild animals, from pygmy opportunities, often on the bikers. (Please stay on the owls and long-toed salaman- You might be on tribal trust or fee reservoirs that store much trails!) Often, there’s no ders to bison and polar bears. land. Management of these lands of the West’s water. Check hunting or four-wheeling, but Mountain biking may be varies a great deal; you may be for permission first, and depending on the agency in allowed, along with hunting trespassing or you may need to apologize to Ed Abbey’s charge, there are exceptions; or fishing — but check for purchase a permit to explore, recreate, ghost for enjoying Lake you might see grazing or oil permission first, and make hunt or fish on tribal lands. Check with Powell. and gas development. sure you have a valid license. the tribal administration’s website.

Photos: Cpl. Reece Lodder/DVIDSHUB, Duncan Rawlinson/CC FLickr, Brooke Warren, Tailgateclothing.com, Miss*Cee/CC Flickr www.hcn.org High Country News 7 On the road with America’s sightseers A photographer looks at three decades of tourism Photos by Roger Minick

8 High Country News April 13, 2015 Couple viewing Grand Tetons, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1980, above. Sleeper tour bus at Goulding, Arizona, 1980, below.

n 1976, Roger Minick was shepherding a group of pho- I tography students through the crowds at the famous Inspiration Point overlook in Yosemite National Park. Tourists with clicking camera shutters and coordinated outfits pushed their way past his students, intently focused on taking snapshots of both the vista and themselves. At first, Minick was irritated, but the repetitive performance eventually sparked his curiosity. And so, in the summer of 1979, Minick and his wife began a road trip around the United States to photograph sightseers. His subjects were often harried, working their way through a tight schedule of attractions. So Minick took a direct approach to them, explaining that he hoped the project “might be seen in years to come as a kind of time capsule of what Americans looked like at the end of the 20th century.” To his surprise, many nodded their heads in assent, as if that made perfect sense. He came to see the crowds as their own species, Sight- seer americanus, the American on holiday, avidly touring the nation’s great attractions. His images capture the hu- mor of families and individuals, clad in brightly colored T- shirts, desperate to capture each fleeting moment at every destination. Minick returned to the series in the 1990s and in 2000. In that time, he saw more visitors, more cellphones, more foreigners. But the essence of S. americanus remained unchanged: the eager rush from sight to sight, the vivid clothes, and always the camera, slung around the craning neck. Kate Schimel

WEB EXTRA More photos online at hcn.org.

Facing page, clockwise from top left: Photographing Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 1980. Couple at Sunset Point, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, 1981. Boy with headress at Lower Falls Overlook, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 1980. Woman photographing in Galcier National Park, Montana, 1980.

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 Extraterrestrial weekend Dispatches from a dryland alien in Portland By Sarah Gilman

ver since pilot Kenneth Arnold trash-filled “ocean.” reported saucer-shaped objects Portland’s oldest planned neighbor- flying near Mount Rainier in 1947, hood, Ladd’s Addition, lies several blocks spawning the term “flying saucer,” farther east. With picturesque houses, the Northwest has drawn extrater- big trees and main streets arranged in a restrial tourists. Last year, Oregon giant X, it makes an inviting UFO land- led the nation in per capita UFO ing pad for extraterrestrials hoping to Esightings, many of them in Portland. But sample the profusion of great restaurants the typical alien sojourn appears to be a and shops on nearby Southeast Haw- mere flyby, sans a single visit to a vegan thorne Boulevard and Southeast Division strip club. Perhaps, like tattoo-less Mid- Street. After grabbing a rich Vietnam- western tourists in ill-fitting pants, they ese bone-broth soup and a microbrew feel out of place here. at the Double Dragon, I pop into the As a recent transplant from rural Independent Publishing Resource Center Colorado, I can relate. What we aliens to watch locals make prints on ancient need, I figure, is an outsiders’ guide to letterpresses, then buy a ’zine from a insider Portland. So, on a rainy Saturday, converted cigarette machine. I don a silver onesie and homemade alien Oaks Amusement Park, where UFOs mask, and set out by bike to concoct one. were spotted shortly after Arnold’s sight- First, I pedal along the Willamette ing, is a pleasant ride south down the River’s industrial waterfront, where I Springwater trail. It offers roller skating- peer at graffiti-decorated freight trains, curious aliens a historic wooden rink then hit the Eastbank Esplanade, a complete with a Wurlitzer pipe organ. At multi-use path with great views of down- the evening roller-derby class, instructor would never use barbecue tongs to handle “Alien” Sarah town that connects to the lengthy Spring- Next of Ken teaches us to crossover our intestines!), but I have my picture taken Gilman, clockwise water Corridor trail. Two women spotted skates and speed in tight circles. Perhaps with it anyway, then befriend the giant from top right: a cigar-shaped UFO here in 2004. But because we ETs are more accustomed to Sasquatch and contemplate a life-sized Hiking an old all I see are passing joggers who studi- interdimensional movement, however, gummy brain on a Styrofoam tray. firelane in Forest ously avoid meeting my black ovoid eyes. my skates tend to fly out from under me. But it is zoobombing that fills my Park; taking in the Hoping for friendly banter, I ask a man HAUS Shows, a network of private alien heart with the most joy. Participants view of Portland’s famous bridges at an overlook — an out-of-towner like homes that host occasional concerts, are meet every Sunday night to ride kiddie from the Eastbank me — to snap my picture. But he returns easier on the tailbone. At that night’s bikes at lightning speed down one of the Esplanade; visiting my iPhone as if it burns him and strides venue, I squeeze onto a sofa amid hip city’s tallest hills. Around 10 p.m., I join a a kindred spirit at swiftly away. young people to listen to sweet-sounding dozen men and women fiddling with cus- the Peculiarium; Just to the east is the Oregon Mu- folk and Americana. The singer from a tom rigs as hiphop pumps from a set of sipping a cappuccino seum of Science and Industry, where I Colorado band smiles at me with some- speakers lashed to an ancient road bike. at Random Order, pocket my alien face (no masks allowed) thing like recognition: “Luchadorable!” he Some strap on dirt-bike helmets with a funky coffee, and visit a large public display of human exclaims. full face-shields. “Cheap dental insur- cocktail and pie fetuses. At a computer terminal, I age my Even so, being an alien is exhaust- ance,” one zoobomber explains helpfully. joint. Sarah Gilman actual 33-year-old face to a wiz- ing: Baristas ignore you, passersby yell A sprightly woman in striped stockings ened 58, then wander a maze obscenities. So fellow extraterrestrials and garter belts calls out the rules: Don’t representing the hydrologic might consider escaping for a hike in block people! Yell out when you see a car! cycle, “falling” from the sky Forest Park, one of the nation’s largest Don’t leave anyone behind! Then we’re as a raindrop on a diminu- urban parks, where moss-furred trees off, screaming around steep turns on tive zipline before a spin exude the homey air of an X-Files set. rain-shimmered streets through silent of a giant dial “con- To warm up after, head for a soak neighborhoods. Ahead of me, a man in a taminates” me at Common Ground Well- studded denim vest with “DROPOUT” with mer- ness Cooperative, a co-ed, emblazoned across the shoulders miracu- cury and clothing-optional hot-tub lously stays upright atop a bike built for I “flow” spa. a kindergartener that keeps losing its into a Then there’s the Pe- chain. culiarium – an oddity I stop at West Burnside Street, the emporium and art downtown drag that will lead me to my gallery in north- truck, and watch the other zoobombers west Portland. descend. Through my mesh eyeholes, The alien au- their evenly spaced taillights seem to blur topsy display into one graceful machine. Like a UFO, is insulting (I gliding out of sight into the city. n

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12 High Country News April 13, 2015 Tourists from across the world visit the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, Washington. Brooke Warren

www.hcn.org High Country News 13

The West in 72 Hours Asian tourists look for space, spectacles and a decent bowl of noodles

14 High Country News April 13, 2015 FEATURE Essay By Judith Lewis Mernit | PHOTOGRAPHS BY BROOKE WARREN

omewhere along Pierce Ferry Road, on a bus driving guide, a 52-year-old Hong Kong native named Raymond Tse, away from the Grand Canyon, Nguyen Thi Ngoc suspected I was lonely. I wanted Lien started to give me a massage. An index finger I wasn’t, though. Not really. By the end of a third day on one side of my right lobe, her middle finger among people whose cultures, food choices, languages and polit- to see how behind it, she began to rub, up and down, up and ical landscapes differed radically from my own, I had learned to tourists down, with the ferocity of a coyote digging a rodent negotiate a certain place of vulnerability and belonging. People Sfrom its den. She paused, took a tiny triangular bottle of liquid had begun to smile at me, with the grounding relief of recogni- from Asia the color of dark beer from her purse whose contents smelled tion in their eyes; they held open doors, waved me along to walk strongly of camphor. She removed the cap and turned it upside with them. Language is just one of the many ways in which adapt, in so down on her fingertip, thrust her finger decisively into my ear humans communicate, I thought, and not always necessary. little time, canal, and twisted. I did, however, have a headache. We had just left the Grand Nguyen, 48, lives in Ho Chi Minh City with her husband, Canyon’s West Rim, on Hualapai Nation land, when it hit; I to a land Tran Phuoc, and their 12-year-old daughter. Lithe and sophisti- had told Nguyen about only because I needed to stop talking. cated, she had abundant black hair cut in layers and luminous The dry desert air, hatless hours in the sun and the dehydra- that must bisque-colored skin, which she protected devoutly with a broad tion that comes with the fear of infrequent bathroom breaks green scarf. She had come to the United States to visit her had all conspired to drive an imaginary knife into my right seem as sister, who lives in Los Angeles, but also to see the West: Its sinus cavity. So Nguyen let me fall silent, and went about her extraordi- low points and high points, its shimmering vistas and legend- work. Finished with my ear, she moved on to my forehead, then ary infrastructure, its neon-blighted cities and unfathomable to my head itself, making vigorous circles with her fingertips nary as stretches of open space. Like me, she and her husband and that pulled on my every fine hair. My eyes flooded with tears. child were traveling on a bus operated by San Francisco-based “I learned it from a book,” Nguyen said of her massage the moon. Lassen Tours, which caters to tourists from Asia. She had been technique. She uses it on herself and her family whenever her assigned a seat next to me because she was among the few in city’s suffocating pollution makes them sick. When she finally our group who could speak a little English, and our buoyant let up, about 50 miles from Las Vegas, I felt weak, exhausted,

Korean tourists Zo Sun-Hwa and Park Young-Gu take a selfie at the salt flats in Death Valley National Park.

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 emotional. But the headache was gone. for granted. I wanted to see how tourists from Asia adapt, in “You need to learn to do it yourself,” Nguyen counseled. “And so little time, to a land that must seem as extraordinary as the “BUS?” I this, too.” She grabbed my right hand, pressed her thumb hard in moon. the space between my thumb and forefinger. I yelped. “Do it ev- said again, eryday. For your headache. For the pollution.” She took my other My journey had begun three days earlier, in San Jose, hand, yanked it toward her, pinched hard. I was cured. California, when I boarded Lassen Tours’ imposing luxury following I had taken Nguyen’s ministrations as more evidence that coach with a married couple from Shenzhen, China, Liu “Lili” the people on this trip felt at ease with me, but in truth Nguyen Lei and her husband, Liu Lian Min. She was slight, prim and was almost as much of an anomaly as I was. We were both impeccably dressed, in black-and-pink two-toned ballet flats, American- navigating language difficulties, both eating unfamiliar food. a white blouse and a black-and-pink skirt. Her husband was While our bus sometimes took on a couple from New Zealand equally trim, with salt-and-pepper hair and a handsome square tourist or a family from India, the vast majority of Lassen’s clientele is jaw. A few moments earlier, when they walked up to the meet- Mandarin-speaking Chinese. ing spot in front of a restaurant in San Jose’s predominantly rule that if This is a recent phenomenon: Though China has been the Asian North Valley, I had cloddishly asked, in English, whether people don’t fastest-growing tourism market in the world for a decade or they were waiting for the bus. Liu tittered and made fluttering more, Chinese tourism to the U.S. didn’t really take off until gestures with her hands; I mimed a driver at a colossal steer- understand 2010, when Obama’s Commerce Department launched Brand ing wheel, commandeering what probably looked like a tank. USA, a marketing effort aimed at foreign visitors. Two years “BUS?” I said again, following the American-tourist rule you, speak later, Obama streamlined the review process for Chi- that if people don’t understand you, speak louder. She louder. nese tourist visas, and the results were dramatic: In nodded her small head rapidly, and we laughed. 2010, more than 800,000 visitors came to the U.S. San Jose is just one of several cities from from China, 52 percent more than the year before. which Lassen collects travelers; when we In 2014, more than 2 million came, making China boarded, the bus was already full of passengers the fifth-largest source of foreign visitors to the who had loaded up in San Francisco, including U.S., behind only Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and the photographer I’d be working with, Brooke Japan. Warren. Lassen operates a daily web of inter- A robust industry has grown up around secting routes originating on the West Coast and them. I chose Lassen Tours for its bilingual winding throughout the West. Some veer off to guides; a couple of others I tried seemed to Disneyland; some go to Los Angeles, still others, prefer Mandarin only. Hotels along tour routes in the summer, head north to Yosemite. Gams of deliver congee-and-dim-sum room-service break- tour buses form in fast-food parking lots to take on fasts; retailers hire Mandarin-fluent staff. At new passengers and let go of others. Tse ushered tourist sights, Chinese passengers spill out them on and off as if he were guiding ducklings of buses by the hundreds, across busy streets. relishing low-priced oppor- “If you go to Las Vegas, tunities to cover a lot of you are going to stay on my ground at a breathtak- bus,” Tse said, articulat- ing pace, without ing his words as if English the complications were a tonal language, like of traffic or lan- Mandarin. “If you are going guage. to L.A., then in the half day, I wanted to about lunchtime, you will be see what the on your bus. To L.A. OK?” West looked like Tse, who came to San to them, to ex- Francisco 30 years ago, wore perience anew smart sunglasses and a long- the places I take sleeved striped shirt over

16 High Country News April 13, 2015 At the Tanger outlets in Barstow, California, tour bus riders and roadtrippers flock to buy items at stores like Claire’s and Coach. At the Sunglass Hut, where Henry Lu peers into the mirror, far left, about 70 percent of their paying customers arrive via Asian tour buses. jeans, his short black hair combed neatly back. He entertained 72 hours in the West in two languages, Mandarin and English, although the latter 1 Boarded, Izzo’s Restaurant 5 Tanger Outlets 9 Panda Express had but a tiny audience: A family of three from India, Warren, 2 Casa De Fruta 6 Ramada Barstow 10 Excalibur Hotel and me. Nguyen’s family and a hip-looking couple from South 3 McDonald’s 7 Death Valley National Park 11 Grand Canyon Skywalk Korea, Park Young-Gu, 40, and his wife, Zo Sun-Hwa, 39, un- 4 Murray Family Farms 8 Badwater 12 Hoover Dam derstood Tse’s English little better than his Mandarin. CALIFORNIANEVADA That never stopped Tse from ribbing Park and Zo, almost constantly, with stereotypes that would make a sensitive Amer- ican blanch. “Kimchi! Hyundai! Samsung!” he would shout at them, explaining how Koreans and Chinese “all used to be one big family,” which is why Koreans can still read Chinese letters even if they don’t understand a word of Mandarin. “Today we go to the factory outlet,” Tse announced from his perch at the front of the bus, microphone in hand. “The ladies will love it. Especially the Korean.” He stared directly at Park and Zo, seated near the front of the bus. “Korean, crazy shop- pers! But first we stop for lunch. I don’t think we can find Ko- rean barbecue, sorry. No kimchi!” I looked over warily at Park and Zo. They were in hysterics, and I came to see Tse’s razzing Google Maps and The Noun Project as a sign of affection. If without a common language, they could still nod and wink at their own comic assumptions, then they did you see?’ They say, ‘I don’t know! I forgot!’ could all unite as Asian and be counted among Tse’s fold. Zo “That’s why,” he chuckled, “they take so many pictures.” and Park delighted in his solicitousness. Our bus would be traveling through the Central Valley We crossed from the coast into Central California and to Barstow, California; then the next day to Death Valley to headed down Interstate 5, past infinite groves of blooming see the lowest spot in the contiguous 48 states at Badwater. almond trees. I looked back through the bus full of passengers; On the third day, we would arrive in Las Vegas, where, for an everyone was sleeping. As the scenery grew ever more dreary additional fee, we could board one of two buses to the Grand with monoculture orchards — grapes, olives, oranges, oranges, Canyon — a four-hour trip to spend one hour at the South Rim, oranges — even Tse retreated to the back of the bus for a or a two-and-a-half hour drive to the Hualapai Nation’s West snooze. Later, crossing the soft green Tehachapi Mountains into Rim where we’d stay for a luxurious four hours. All of it would the Mojave Desert, he perked up to narrate again: weather, happen in three days. geography, how deserts form in the rain shadows of mountains. “We always try to provide as much of a program as we can He explained that space shuttles launched from the Mojave’s in 12 hours, even if we have to skip a restroom stop and have Edwards Air Force Base, “because the weather here is perfect, no time for lunch,” said Tse, who used the pronoun “we” when never raining.” speaking for both Americans and Chinese. “This is the way We got to the wind-scoured, dust-battered Mojave Desert we prefer to do it. We don’t want to finish a national park in city of Barstow at 5 p.m. as promised, to shop at the Tanger one day. We want to finish a national park in a half day, or one Outlet Mall. I rushed off the bus to find out which store would hour. You can look at the itinerary of our Grand Circle tour. be the one all Chinese people love. Coach? Ralph Lauren? Ugg? In seven days, we see the Petrified Forest, the Grand Canyon, To my disappointment, however, they didn’t crowd into one Monument Valley, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion store. Instead, they dispersed, like a vapor, absorbed into the National Park, Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell.” retail miasma that had settled over the desert. I sat outside on “Five days,” corrected our bus driver, Dale Marlar. “One day a bench, watching Marlar and his fellow bus drivers clean yel- Tour guide to drive out, one day to drive back.” low bug splatter off their enormous windshields. Raymond Tse, facing “Okay, five days! It is impossible,” Tse said. “But the Asian I had expected to report that people returned an hour later page, cracks a joke market, that’s what they want. Up at 6 a.m., no breakfast. loaded up with bags of shoes, clothing and other items to be as he rattles off the Rush, rush, rush. Then they come home and people say, ‘What repatriated back to their country of manufacture. But they did itinerary for the trip. www.hcn.org High Country News 17 not. A 20-year-old engineering student from Taiwan, Henry if you’re not careful. “But not today. Today nobody will die. Lu — whom photographer and now collaborator, Warren, had Today we have only 65 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 65 minus 32, unearthed from the crowd as a rare English speaker — bought which is 23; 23 divided by 9, which is 2.5; 2.5 times 5, which is “This is a new pair of sunglasses. Lili Liu acquired a handbag from craaaay-zee! OK, everybody, I don’t understand how America is the way we Coach. Most people returned to the bus early. still using Fahrenheit.” My bus mates’ frugality notwithstanding, Barstow, a cheer- He pointed to a sign on the bluff over the salt flats. “Sea prefer to less city that exists where the old Route 66 and the railroads level. See? That is the line. I went up last night, put that sign converge, has been carefully calibrated to the needs of the up there for you. do it. We Chinese shopping tourist. The Ramada Inn smoothly processes “This,” he says, “is Essential California.” don’t want tour bus arrivals and features a restaurant in the parking lot We pulled up behind three other tour buses along the road. called, simply, China Town Buffet. When we first pulled up, We joined the scattering of visitors wandering out on the salt to finish a the restaurant looked dark and deserted, but later it lumbered pan, reading the interpretative signs, taking pictures. People into action like a powerful, efficient feeding machine. The lights from our bus forced their cameras into my hands, pointing to national flickered on; steam coated the windows. Inside, two long lines of themselves and each other, then pointing to me, miming a shut- stainless steel chafing dishes were being loaded with food. ter squeeze. I nodded and smiled, focused their cameras and park in Everyone arrived at once. We each paid $10 and got a plate took their pictures, raising a finger before they dispersed to say, one day. on which to pile mussels, shrimp, green beans, pork dumplings, “Wait! One more.” mixed vegetables, egg rolls, sesame balls, rice, and several kinds In the line for the pit-toilet bathroom, a tall Asian man We want of noodles. Everyone joyously elbowed up to the dish they want- dressed in jeans and a pressed Oxford shirt came up behind me ed, pushing without a hint of enmity. I had learned to pronounce and asked to go first: He’d been on another bus, holding it for to finish a the sounds dui-bu-qi; once when I blurted them out, Henry Lu’s an hour. When he emerged, he told me his name, Xu Cho, and national mother turned around and beamed, “Excuse me!” But the phrase said he was living in San Jose, working as a software engineer turned out to be mostly irrelevant; no one cared who shouldered at Samsung. He had come to the U.S. 20 years ago, when he park in a whom aside to grab a serving spoon. We sat at long family-style was 25, and had lived all over the West. He ended up on a Las- tables and ate as one, washing it all down with tea or Coca-Cola sen tour because his sister, visiting from Shanghai, got fed up half day, or or Tsing-Tao beer. Sometime in the middle of the meal, two with him working during his family’s visit and booked a trip young local women walked in, their hair dyed blond with streaks for herself, their parents and Xu’s wife without bothering to one hour.” of pink and blue. They surveyed the scene for a few minutes from consult him. “I should have rented a car to drive them,” he said, Lassen tour guide the doorway, turned away and left. “but my sister beat me to it.” Raymond Tse The next morning, I peered into the windows of China And yet he admitted there were advantages to the bus tour: (pictured at right) Town Buffet. It looked clean, unoccupied, inert, as if it had been You never have to worry about getting stranded in the desert conjured up the night before only to evaporate when its patrons with a broken-down car; no one micromanages your driving. moved on. As if only when another series of tour buses returns His bus was spacious and not even close to full, and it was from the Tanger Outlet tomorrow night would it rise up, serve, bringing him and his family to places where they rarely felt and then vanish again, like a Mandarin Brigadoon. the crush of a crowd. China is beautiful, he told me; it has its own breathtaking views, high mountains and waterfalls. One- Telescope Peak, at 11,000 feet the highest point of the Pana- fifth of China’s territory remains uninhabited by humans, and mint Range, rises up to the west, covered with snow, as we de- China has its own national parks — 225 of them, to be exact. scend into the Badwater Basin. It was hard to know if everyone But “whenever there is a national holiday, every tour is full,” was looking out the window to drink in the spectacular beauty Xu said. “The trains, the cars, the airplanes, the hotels — every- of the painted mountains, or staring at the horizon in order not thing is booked. to vomit; the bus listed and floated down the mountain like a “You are not going out into nature at those places. You are sailboat crossing rolling swells. A long white salt flat gleamed going into the crowd. in the sun. “Here,” he said, “look!” He spread his arms wide. “So much “Baaaaad-WATER!” Tse declared, counting the feet as we room. It is hard to get to anyplace in China where you can go descended below sea level. “Two hundred ten, two hundred like this.” twenty.” He described the ocean that once filled this valley, “Not even the Great Wall?” I asked. told of temperature extremes in the summer that will kill you “Especially not the Great Wall.”

18 High Country News April 13, 2015 David Sun, 14, far left, stares at a free fountain show in Las Vegas, where hordes of spectators watched through phone screens as they recorded the spectacle. Lili Liu, center, has her picture taken in Caesar’s Palace. Raymond Tse, left, tells 10-year-old Leo Liu Jun to sit up straight while playing video games as they wait for the tour group to reconvene in the Venetian.

We arrived in Las Vegas on the eve of the Lunar New Year. Li had her hair cut in a tight bob, which framed big eyes and City billboards beamed welcomes in Chinese lettering, gift full lips, and she spoke with pronounced confidence. “The song shops touted special sales celebrating the Year of the Ram, or they are playing is called ‘Two Butterflies Die for Love,’ ” Li While China the Goat, or — if, like us, you’d just come from Death Valley — explained. It tells the story of a boy butterfly who waits for a the Year of the Bighorn Sheep. flower to open so he can declare his love for the girl butterfly has 225 Vegas hotels have dedicated bus areas, with driveways to inside it. When it does, he finds the girl butterfly, dead. national smooth cumbersome steering ratios and obviate the dangers of We followed Li and her young son and husband into the driving in reverse. Our hotel, the 4,000-room, Medieval-themed night, onto the bus, to the long strip mall that qualifies as parks, Excalibur, had a rotunda specially designed for large arriv- Vegas’ Chinatown. Tse escorted us into a second-floor Chinese als. Our keys appeared in an instant, and we filtered out like restaurant, but just as quickly showed us out: The wait for food during invading mice through the ding-ding-deeduly-ding-ing of slot was averaging 45 minutes. He herded us all downstairs to a machines and a haze of cigarette smoke wafting from strategi- Taiwanese restaurant instead, where the ordering process in- holidays, cally placed bars, to elevators that would lift us with the silky volved peering at dishes behind a plate-glass display and then they’re speed of pneumatic tubes to our precipitous rooms. sitting down to order. Those of us who had bought $25 tickets to a city tour Warren and I were completely helpless here; Tse had to packed. assembled in the lobby at 4:30 p.m. to board the bus, which lead us like little children through the choices while Li ran deposited us a few hotels away at Caesar’s Palace. We were a interference with the wait staff. Finally, we were presented “You are not mish mash of travelers who had come on different buses from with a plate of pickled and steamed vegetables and a bowl of going out various locales; I recognized only Henry Lu and his parents noodles to share. Tse thought we wouldn’t finish a whole bowl from our original group. In the mob gathered at Caesar’s to each, but after watching Li’s husband across the table slurping into nature watch an animatronic King Atlas dispatch his feuding children and biting off his noodles back into their broth, we realized we with a fire-breathing serpent, I met Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lien and wanted our own. Li demanded a second. While a Chinese soap at those her family, who had just arrived that day from Los Angeles. opera played on the overhead TV, all pink-and-green hues and Together, we headed out onto the Strip: A pulsing, chattering histrionic gestures, and Li translated the story — “it’s about a places. You juggernaut of humanity, impenetrable to flip-flopped bachelor robber, and he is pleading forgiveness” — we watched, imitated, are going partier and panhandling veteran alike. When two large white slurped, bit and drank our respective meals down to their men in a pickup truck wanted to make a left turn through our dregs. into the fast-moving mass, they stooped low. “Ebola! Ebola! Ebola!” they Both Warren and I had lived in other countries, places shouted out the window. Our sea of people parted to let them where we had learned the languages and tried our best to crowd. through, less offended than stunned. blend in with the locals. But our Chinese friends were having Here, look! Elderly people, children, young adults, no one dallied or none of that. It occurred to us both in the same moment that flagged. Tse had given out his cellphone number to rescue any we were not observing a troupe of Chinese visitors in the West So much strays, but as far as I know, no one used it. Everyone negoti- attempting to adapt to our culture. We were traveling on a ated every move without incident. We walked and walked and mobile China as it moved through the American West. And the room.” walked. To the Mirage to see a simulated volcanic eruption, to American West was expanding — with restaurants, shopping —Xu Cho, San Jose the Bellagio to watch fountains dance to Frank Sinatra, to the and spectacles — to include them. software engineer Venetian, where a tall blond man who looked like a college bas- ketball player directed, in faultless Mandarin, each person to a In May of 2013, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang launched counter where, in exchange for their personal contact informa- a public harangue against badly behaved Chinese tourists. tion, they were given a ceramic mug in the shape of a Venetian Enough with the loud talking, the nose-picking, the tagging villa. of other country’s artifacts, he said. Chinese travelers need to In the flicker of free time before loading up the bus to go straighten up. The following October, China’s National Tourism to dinner, we lingered on the Venetian’s second-floor balcony, Administration published a 64-page Guidebook for Civilized listening to a string quartet play traditional Chinese music. By Tourism. Among the advice: Wear a clean shirt, don’t greet the time I climbed up there, Warren was already ensconced in people by asking where they’re going (as they do in China), and the crowd camera in hand. “People are starting to speak Eng- please don’t slurp your noodles. lish to us,” she said, in a slightly amazed whisper, and intro- Noodle-slurping — a practice I wholeheartedly support — duced me to her new friend Sunflower Li, 40, from Guangzhou. aside, I observed none of the forbidden behavior on Wang’s list

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 Li Qiang and Peng Lan watch a recording of the endless straight highway on Li’s phone as the bus makes its way toward Death Valley.

among my Chinese cohort. No rudeness, no slovenliness, no Chinese and Native Americans are related. He also told me he inappropriate shouting. I never heard a complaint nor heard of doesn’t particularly appreciate the question: “We have our own complaining; no one ever lost her temper, nor was anyone ever creation stories,” he said, “which say that we were put here at “Who is a late. The people on my bus were unflaggingly cheerful, polite the beginning of the Earth.” He declined to tell me any of them real Indian? and generous; they evinced no cynicism about cheesy Vegas because the February weather was spring-like, and the animals spectacles nor tedious landscapes nor California’s flagrant might hear. I want to water squandering. Only once did I see anyone behave with Judging by the response to the story among my fellow bus textbook insensitivity, when, in the gift shop at the Old West- travelers, however, Tse might have exaggerated the Beringia meet a real themed Hualapai Ranch on the Grand Canyon’s West Rim, a story’s appeal. Only Sunflower Li allowed that “it matters a Indian!” large man with a distinct Mandarin accent demanded to know little bit, as a story.” No one else seemed to care. I was confi- if the young woman at the cash register was “a real Indian.” dent, at any rate, that Beringia was not what brought Chinese —A rare rude When she answered that she was in fact Mexican, the man tourists to this side of the Grand Canyon in droves. Nor was Mandarin-accented persisted. “Who is a real Indian? I want to meet a real Indian!” it the story of the late David Jin, the Chinese-born Las Vegas visitor at a gift I followed the man out, hoping to get some insight into businessman who collaborated with the Hualapai Nation to shop on the Grand the nature of his inquiry, but I was waylaid by the chaps-clad develop the Skywalk, the glass-bottomed platform that pro- Canyon’s West Rim jesters at the West Rim’s Cowboy Village, who grabbed me trudes 70 feet out over the 4,000-foot abyss. Most of the Asian and threatened to throw me in their jail for wearing a striped visitors I observed were happy to save the $30 admission to the shirt. (Now that, I thought, was rude.) But I suspected I already Skywalk and perch themselves, arms stretched wide, on rocks knew what he was after; Tse had talked about it on the bus. extending over the canyon, mimicking flight. They, like every- Ten thousand years ago, “during the glacier period,” as Tse put one on my bus, likely had one compelling reason for choosing it, people from the distant Asian continent had trekked north the Hualapai Nation over the National Park Service’s South to Siberia and crossed the iced-over Bering Straight to take up Rim: The tribe’s view of the Grand Canyon is a whole lot closer residence in North America. “The ones that stayed north, they to Las Vegas. are the ess-kee-MOH,” Tse said. The ones who moved on farther And they came to the Grand Canyon, as Nguyen put it, to south, “those are the Native American Indians. Which you will see “the power of water.” When we first arrived, I had boarded meet today.” the small shuttle bus from the airport terminal to the Huala- Tse reported the Bering Land Bridge story as established pai Ranch with Zo and Park, who sat quietly looking into the fact, but in reality “Beringia” remains a theory, alternately cellphones they used to help them interpret the sights. Nguyen proved and disproved whenever archaeologists dig up new had warned me that “Asians don’t show emotion,” but as we remains and analyze ancient DNA. If such a migration did hap- rounded the corner to the Hualapai Ranch and the Big Ditch pen, most scholars agree, it wasn’t 10,000, but 40,000 to 12,500 came into view, both Koreans rushed to the window and cried years ago. Still, Tse said, many Asian people delight in the no- out, Samsungs in hand. Seeing it through their eyes, I did the tion that Native Americans might be their relatives. same. We celebrated together by positioning ourselves, two I thought this might explain why the clientele at the by two, at the window with the landscape behind us, taking Hualapai Nation’s Grand Canyon West attractions is, by smiling pictures of each other in pairs. We were never able to anecdotal estimates, 90 percent Chinese. A Native American exchange more than a few fought-for words, but in that mo- tourist ambassador stationed at Eagle Point, Daniel Powskey, ment, we were friends. confirmed that Chinese visitors ask him a lot if he thinks the

20 High Country News April 13, 2015 Joshua trees in bloom floated by the bus window on the way back to Vegas, each creamy tip fitting each branch like a neat little cap. Nguyen’s husband, Tran Phuoc, asked me to write down the word for the plant on my notepad; then he looked it up in his handheld translating machine. “It’s a name?” he asked. I told him yes, and explained that the Mormon settlers thought the Joshua tree’s upturned limbs looked like a man praying, and so named the plant after the prophet. I spoke clearly and slowly, never sure that he understood; the story comes so packed with bizarre details that making sense of it would take a month. Tran seemed satisfied enough, though. He handed me his business card, identifying him as the dean of a major engineering school in Ho Chi Minh City. “Come to visit us,” he said. Then he switched places with Nguyen so he could nap next to his daughter. Nguyen’s English was halting and fragmented; our conversation felt like two people finding their way through a maze in the fog, feeling around for clues, heading down dead-ends for long minutes before realizing we’d taken a wrong turn. Still, it went fairly deep. We discussed her country’s environmental troubles, cultural differences in childbearing, even the war the U.S. fought on her home soil. Unlike the Chinese with their expedited visa rules, Vietnamese travelers endure long waits; Nguyen’s visa took two years, “because they thought I was going to come here to live with my sister.” Then they looked at her caught up with Sunflower Li and her family as they were head- A Lassen Tours bus passport and saw that she had been to Malaysia, Singapore, ing back to the elevators, looking tired and not at all interested driver cleans his China. “They saw I was a traveler, and they said OK.” But in all in navigating a second language. I said goodbye to Tse, and windshield after a her travels she had never been anywhere, she said, where the thanked him for his help. Then I headed to the most American day driving across horizon stretched out so unbroken. bar I could find, to have the most American of drinks: A rich, California. “We have some open space, some parks,” she said. “But they cold, hoppy beer. Then a few sips into my IPA at the MGM are all very small. This,” she said, gesturing to the window and Grand’s TAP Sports Bar, it dawned on me what I was drinking: the miles of uninterrupted land beyond it, “it makes you feel A brew the 19th-century British had formulated with preserva- different. So good. So much room.” tive hops for export to India. We parted in the Excalibur’s rotunda; I thanked her again We live in a global village, I thought, and there is no way for clearing my headache, and resolved to stay in touch. I out. Nor, I realized, do I want there to be. n

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www.hcn.org High Country News 21 22 High Country News April 13, 2015 I was facing a world where 13 12- and 13- and 14-year-old girls were chirping my dog’s name, looking for me, and I The guide had to respond with a smile. The previous night, after stringing inside up bear bags of lotion, tam- pons, pots, granola and trash By Erica Berry – WINNER in the trees, I let myself cry. I was 19. I had signed Readers’ Anna’s braces fell off after myself up for both mother- foreign breakfast on the fifth day. I hood and the wilderness, was rolling my rain-jacket into and I wasn’t sure I could travel tales my backpack when she came handle either. We asked our up to me, clutching them in A pair of alien hands her rosy palm — tiny metal rummaged through my intrepid readers pieces that had once been on pack: Dirty fingernails, to send us stories her tiny ivory teeth. “Cricket,” swollen knuckles, bug-bit- about ways the she said, “they’ve been loose for ten palms, branch-scratched West can feel a while. I think we need to call wrists, a rainbow of friend- my dentist.” Part of the chain was ship bracelets. I put Anna’s foreign. What still in her mouth, and she cocked braces in a Ziploc bag, telling her follows are the her head at me, smiling through wire we would sort it out when we got editors’ picks. and chapped lips, her cheeks a sunburned back to the van. Her eyes were wet. I topography of mosquito bites. told her I had once accidentally thrown my We were deep in the Centennial Mountains retainer into the trash with a paper plate, and Illustrations by of Montana — Indian paintbrush meadows, alpine streams it required a dive through a dumpsterful of crusts and cores to Bryce Gladfelter — and nothing made sense. My camp name, Cricket, was also recover it. “Just think, this will be a great story one day!” I told the name of the miniature Australian shepherd my parents her. She laughed. owned back home. That morning, I’d woken up clutching my Ahead of me, 24 eyes peered through pine needles and bear spray like a talisman, sweat-drenched in the mesh cave sunlight. The girls were grinning, kicking their feet like horses of my tent. My co-guide had left on horseback around 4 a.m., in the trail. evacuating the ever-vomiting Mary. We were hoping it wasn’t “All ready, crew?” said a strange, strong voice from inside my Hantavirus: There were mouse droppings in the cowboy yurt we ribs. had cooked in a day before. “Come on, Cricket,” said Astrid. “We’re following you!” n

www.hcn.org High Country News 23 24 High Country News April 13, 2015 Land of retirement

By Ralph Moore

Nothing I could relate to; no tracks that meant anything. A familiar. wilderness for sure. Directed by colors — the piercing blue Some- overhead brilliant and uplifting; the baked cinnamon sand- where in stone varnished, solid and comforting — I found all the crayon Desolation shades between red and brown, hovering this morning near Canyon, or Still- burnt umber. Early signs led only to box canyons, an occasional water Canyon, wash. Nothing that matched the guidebook’s description beyond or Labyrinth the trailhead, nothing recognizable. No cairns. Where were the Canyon, as we familiar patterns, the landmarks? It hit me then, like late after- floated day after noon thirst on an all-day hike: I was in this for the long haul. day and laughed I was retired. I was retired, and there had to be an app for and listened to san- that. It was definitely the most foreign place imaginable. I need- dy water run under ed reference points, and sought understanding through obser- our drifting rafts vation, conversation and writing. I looked for plants and people and canoes, listened to relate to, yearned for weather to connect with, and sought to canyon wrens at prepositions that wouldn’t end phrases. I came to this place by dawn, listened to wind in traveling, exploring and education, balanced with living and cottonwoods at camp, and working in 10 Western states over 40 years, mostly through a listened to each other, the career in land management. My wife and I fell for the expansive terrain became better defined. prairie in Nebraska’s Panhandle, the spring snow in the Sierra I looked for butterflies (saltbush high country, the rich distinctive smells of evergreens in the sootywing, sagebrush checkerspot, Pacific Northwest and the waves along the West Coast. Alaska checkered skipper) and photographed will be with us always. Generous and gracious hearts opened up spring wildflowers (desert phlox, scarlet gilia, globemallow, through stories, setting waypoints. paintbrush). Identification, categorization, then realization. The Colorado Plateau is a powerful place, where return Become grounded by walking. means reconnection. Yet this place where I now reside — “re- At the side canyon’s junction with the river, a petroglyph. tirement” — is shaped as much by open space as time, with Where once prominent features defined a journey’s course, I am different currency and language — and it begs perspective. This learning the customs of this new place and looking, looking for landscape is our new home, yet those living here look vaguely nuances. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 25 26 High Country News April 13, 2015 empty house. I lingered at the gate. Unfamilial To me, this homestead did not evoke a sense of nostalgic love, no wistful remembrance By Victoria Stein of a golden childhood. It was sharp and cold, bare and beautiful, striations in I don’t feel at ease anywhere in the canyon walls and branching brittle world. I’m the mixed-race child vegetation — visually similar to Here in the of immigrant families, almost the high deserts I’ve known; Navajo Nation, blending in but never quite politically isolated from the na- comfortable. Brown hair, brown tion I belonged to, which en- as my boots eyes, average features: I can closed this one. To him, even hit the red soil seem like a local anywhere though the light was falling, I can act confident, and a the house was cold, and the beside our dirt- stranger anywhere outside water wouldn’t run from the crusted car, I my comfort zone. But here taps, this place mattered: in the Navajo Nation, as my It was where his bones was confronted boots hit the red soil beside rested. I learned a lot over with an entirely our dirt-crusted car, I was con- our days in that house with fronted with an entirely new its family photos, cast-iron new sense of sense of foreignness. pans seasoned by generations, foreignness. Juniper and sage clung to the paintings and knickknacks, and cracked ground, and the recent backyard full of forgotten tools. winter rain had already evaporated His uncle came to fix the water, but from pools between the cactuses. A I never saw him — another ghostly truck, stained over years to the burnt reminder to me that the real life of the copper color of the earth, avoided the road’s land continued around my bubble of quiet worst potholes; the driver watched faceless observation. through a dark window as my friend pushed open the We stood looking down steep steps, laid for sand-scoured gate to his grandmother’s house. The truck disap- his great-grandmother by her husband to lead her, stone by peared down the hill in a cloud of dust, toward the old school- stone, to the ancient peach orchard at the canyon bottom. I fell house and the abandoned trading post, past a sign advertising in love with that story, with the red grit in my teeth, with the a backyard sheep roast, $5 per plate. The engine noise faded, tiny trickle far below that wound past the dry-leafed trees and muted against the flat sky, as my friend bounded ahead into the became, in time, the Colorado River. But I wasn’t at home. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 27 28 High Country News April 13, 2015 Maybe they’ll come back, she says. I ask if she’d like that, and Uranium bust she says, Sure, those were good times. Uranium is expected to boom again, and men in polished By Irina Zhorov white trucks have been frequenting the hidden hills around Jeffrey City. They leave the keys to gated mine sites with Vikki Three bars used to serve beer in Jeffrey City — one for the between visits. I go out with Frank, who’s preparing the mine Why are there oilfield workers, one for the uranium miners, and one for the for opening, once uranium prices rise sufficiently. I carry a ranchers. Now there’s one, and when I walk in a group of Geiger counter and point it at mounds of dirt piled up by the metal grates on smokers sits at a round table playing card games on their previous boom. It chirps enthusiastically. Frank takes me to an the windows? computers. The barkeep, Vikki, is also the town’s old mine pit, now filled with brilliant blue part-time librarian. Why are there metal grates water. Amid the tans of the plains, the The women on the windows? I ask. The women kept McIntosh Pit’s deep cyan is a portal kept getting getting into fights and throwing each to another world. The water is full other through the windows, she of radionuclides. into fights and says. This is the ranchers’ bar, Back at the bar, I meet throwing each serving the approximately 75 the Mad Potter and lose $2 people who remain here. The playing dice. He makes other through other workers have left. ceramics in a small com- the windows. The town hugs U.S. 287, plex of structures across but down the dirt roads from the bar. It looks like that weave through sage- he ended up here after brush there are still ranch- breaking down on the es, still signs of life. I visit way to Burning Man. a rancher who tells me Stop by anytime, he Jeffrey City used to have says as I head out. 5,000 residents. There I pull out of the bar were social clubs, schools, and onto U.S. 287, even a swimming pool. onward to my destina- Later, a squatter was found tion. Before I speed up, dead in the emptied pool. The I roll slowly past rows second hand of the clock in her of boarded-up company wallpapered kitchen thun- housing for miners. A herd ders above the rancher’s quiet of antelope grazes on the recollections of community bustle. playground. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 29 30 High Country News April 13, 2015 merchants, had turned its back on Atlan- Cola hole ta. There was no Coca-Cola available. Georgia’s most famous product, in By Steve Snyder its most convenient form, was nowhere to be found here. I had had a long but enjoyable Not a single convenience day of hiking. Most of my store in Crescent City That’s when treks had been relatively deigned to carry it on tap, in- I found out easy, and of course, beau- stead offering only a sticky, tiful, ever since that first toothlessly sweet tar called the beauty of morning barefoot walk in “Pepsi.” nature had the sand at Nickel Beach I had heard tales of after unpacking my tent this strange phenomenon been rudely and sleeping bag. Walks before. I knew that large punctuated by through cathedral groves swaths of the Pacific of redwood giants had me Northwest were deep into a small-scale wondering if I had seen Coke Denialism. human horror the tallest tree; it was one But I had never met of them, though left deliber- this scourge face-to-face show. ately unmarked. before. Until now. Heart- It was more than sky- less, remorseless, pitiless high gazes. Noticing the fountain machines confronted difference in bark from tree me. to tree, looking at the luxuriant I needed to gas up, then visit undergrowth, and appreciating an- the pier area at sunset before I other cathedral-like aspect — quiet, bid adieu to the southern gateway to oh-so-rare today — completed the day. Redwood National Park. So after visiting But I eventually headed back to my car. every C-store on Highway 101, I finally It was time to wrap up this segment of my vaca- settled for a non-cola product from a fountain tion and ease on down the road, and I didn’t want to rush. machine. And that’s when I found out the beauty of nature had been The forces of evil, lurking in the middle of stunning beauty, rudely punctuated by a small-scale human horror show. Or so it would not win. The setting sun might bring on natural night- seemed to me. fall, but human darkness would not conquer my soul. Because the land, or at least some of its more prominent Lost Coast, here I come! n

www.hcn.org High Country News 31 32 High Country News April 13, 2015 hanging dangerously below the other What goes up three. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” By Stephen Elliott Earl said, neither shouting nor whispering. He quickly The last thing you want to hear yanked the cord to release when your life is in someone air from the balloon so we I believed else’s hands is, “Oh, shit.” could descend, but in his that Earl Yet there I was, 80 feet above panic he let out too much. the Teton County, Idaho, fair- After a brief leveling off, would keep grounds and the neighboring we began falling faster me safe. He industrial lockup, in a hot air and faster, toward a balloon, listening to Earl the pi- warehouse and industri- was wearing a lot repeatedly mumble, “Oh, shit.” al enclosure next to the cowboy hat, for Hot air ballooning is about the fairgrounds. most foreign type of travel I can We skimmed the ware- Christ’s sake! imagine — untethered from solid house roof, then hopped ground yet unsupported by jet down into the gravel piles in engines or safety harnesses … the yard. I braced for impact, just a wicker basket, some steel which was jarring and imme- cables and a gruff, leathery old diate. man preventing you from falling to Flight is foreign. It’s unnatu- a potato field 100 or 1,000 feet below. ral for humans to have their feet on And I believed that Earl would keep anything but earth, yet the frequency me safe. He was wearing a cowboy hat, for and regularity of air travel has made flight Christ’s sake! He’d been flying balloons for seem boring and routine. Air travel is so safe and damn near three decades! And not one accident! normal that I forget I’m 30,000 feet in the air; instead, You had me at howdy, Earl. I worry about legroom and not spilling my ginger ale. We took off around 6 a.m., with the sun just above the It took a return to the oldest form of human flight (France, Tetons shining straight ahead. The oh-shits began about 30 1783) to remind me that man belongs on the ground, no matter seconds and 80 vertical feet later. Earl noticed that one of the how liberating it is to ignore the laws of physics. What goes up four cables connecting the corners of the basket to the balloon must come down. I felt more foreign 80 feet above the Teton was not, in fact, connecting the basket to the balloon, but rather County Fairgrounds than I do 30,000 feet above middle Ameri- dangling unattached and unhelpful, one corner of our chariot ca. Go figure. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 33 Nonprofit and Educational Travel Listings These listings are brief advertisements, helping nonprofit and educational organizations connect with HCN readers. If your organization would like to be listed in next year’s special HCN travel issue, contact (800) 311-5852 or email [email protected]. Alianza Mesoamericana A weekend adventure that introduces women to Phone: 503-358-1949 Center Pole de Ecoturismo outdoors skills in an enjoyable, non-threatening Email: [email protected] environment with expert instructors. Classes are www.cascademountainschool.org 3391 Garryowen Road held during the day, and the evenings are filled 4076 Crystal Court Garryowen, MT 59031 with fun and entertainment like night hikes, fly Boulder, CO 80304 Offers cultural information and an inside tying, and motivational speakers. Try a new sport glimpse into the Crow Indian reservation without buying all of the equipment. Nature-based tours benefiting local people to Center for Alaskan community. Wellknown Buffalo Coffee Shop Southern Mexico and Central America. Climb serves Crow-roasted coffee and ice cream. Tipi Phone: 480-644-0077 the Seven Summits of Nicaragua, bird the IBAs Coastal Studies stays available (advance arrangement.) Located Email: [email protected] of Western Guatemala and Chiapas, raft the Rio on I–90 below the Little Big Horn Battlefield. www.azwildlife.org Platano in Honduras! Over 20 years offering 708 Smokey Bay Way Help support programs for Native American safe group and custom trips to Nicaragua, Homer, AK 99603 youth. Crow language spoken here. Guatemala, Chiapas, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador. A journey of discovery on Kachemak Bay, one of Phone: 406-638-2821 Cascade Mountain School the most productive and diverse coastal areas Email: [email protected] Phone: 800-682-0584 in Alaska. We offer a variety of personalized www.thecenterpole.org experiences for all ages and abilities. Travel by Email: [email protected] 1029 May Street City www.exploremesoamerica.com boat from Homer Harbor to Peterson Bay Field Hood River, OR 97031 Station. Naturalist Led. Mention this ad for a 5% discount! Cascade Mountain School offers summer Cloud Horse Art Institute residential science camps for middle and high Phone: 907-235-6667 school students. Experience hands-on science Becoming an Outdoors Email: [email protected] Box 542 and conservation activities while backpacking, http://www.akcoastalstudies.org Kyle, SD 57752 Woman biking, rafting, farming, and mountaineering in the beautiful Cascade Mountains, an hour Cloud Horse Art Institute is the only Arts PO Box 51510 from Portland, Oregon. Earn science credit! Work Education Native 501c3 on the Northern Plains. Mesa, AZ 85208 alongside professional scientists, engineers, Located in Kyle, South Dakota, on the beautiful farmers, and natural resource managers.

34 High Country News April 13, 2015 Pine Ridge Reservation, we offer classes that Change the way you see the world! Other Four Corners School of Glen Canyon Institute range from Traditional Lakota Cooking to Film tours show you the sights. Crow Canyon travel Outdoor Education Making. The Odd Duck Inn is hosted by Tilda seminars give you perspective. Explore the 429 East 100 South Long Soldier–St. Pierre, founder CHAI. Southwest with archaeologists and American 49W 600S Salt Lake City, UT 84111 Phone: 605-455-2972 Indian scholars or take part in hands-on Monticello, UT 84535 Email: [email protected] archaeology fieldwork and lab sessions, offered Join us at Four Corners School’s Southwest Ed- Join GCI and Holiday Rivers June 11-15 for www.Cloudhorseartinstitute.org in the summer and fall. Ventures for an adventure with a mission! “Ed- a journey down the San Juan River with Ventures” combine guided adventures with the former Congressman George Miller, former Phone: 800-422-8975 expertise of a skilled educator, and we challenge Commissioner of Reclamation Dan Beard, and Email: [email protected] anyone, anywhere, to have more fun learning. GCI trustee Dave Wegner. This educational www.crowcanyon.org Programs for all ages. April–October. Call 1-800- expedition will offer rare insight to western water Cottonwood Gulch 525-4456 or go to fourcornersschool.org/ from some of the policy experts who’ve shaped it. Foundation programs/southwest-ed-ventures-swed. Phone: 801-363-4450 9223 4th St NW Flag Wool and Fiber at The Phone: 435-587-2156 Email: [email protected] Albuquerque, NM 87114 Pioneer Museum Email: [email protected] www.glencanyon.org www.fourcornersschool.org The Cottonwood Gulch Foundation sponsors educational wilderness expeditions and outdoor 2340 N. Fort Valley programs in the American Southwest that Flagstaff, AZ 86001 promote personal growth, scientific, historic, and cultural discovery as well as a knowledgeable Flag Wool and Fiber Fest: A Celebration of Friends of Kelly’s Heart–J Center for environmental ethic among all those who Animals, Fiber Arts, and History. May 30–31 Whitewater ParK Experiential LearninG participate. We now offer treks for adults: one for 2015, 10am–4pm at The Pioneer Museum. Events include: animal shearing, kids women, and one for men and women! 501 Kelly’s Parkway 2939 N County Rd 31D activities, workshops, fiber arts competition, Cascade, ID 83611 Loveland, CO 80538 demonstrations, spinning, weaving, fleece swap, Phone: 505-248-0563 The Heart–J Center offers hands-on learning local artisans and more! FREE ADMISSION! Email: [email protected] Nestled in the Idaho mountains on the Payette adventures for all ages, based at historic Sylvan www.cottonwoodgulch.org River, in Cascade, Idaho, Kelly’s Whitewater Park Dale Ranch in the Colorado foothills. Fun and Phone: 928-607-4712 (free) provides calm water and perfect waves informative workshops and retreats focus on Email: [email protected] for stand up paddle boarders, river surfers, and science and nature, history and archaeology, www.flagwool.com kayakers. Float the river, stroll the Strand, picnic agriculture and livestock, outdoor skills, creative in the park, or walk across the bridge to Rock arts and wellness. Crow Canyon Island. Archaeological Center Phone: 970-690-4221 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 23390 Road K http://www.kellyswhitewaterpark.com www.heartjcenter.org Cortez, CO 81321

www.hcn.org High Country News 35 KS Wild and ARTA Malheur Field Station North Cascades Institute Walking Mountains Science Center PO Box 102 34848 Sodhouse Lane 1940 Diablo Dam Rd Ashland, OR 97520 Princeton, OR 97721 Diablo State, WA 98283 318 Walking Mountains Lane Avon, CO 81620 Experience a five-day hike along the Wild and Malheur Field Station is a nonprofit education Visit the North Cascades Environmental Learning Scenic Rogue River. ARTA will ferry all the gear center in the remote Great Basin Desert of Center for hands-on learning adventures with Walking Mountains Science Center offers daily by boat, allowing you to enjoy riverside camping SE Oregon, dedicated to providing life–long the Pacific Northwest’s best naturalists, artists, natural science education programs for everyone. with fresh, hearty meals, and all the comforts of learning opportunities for individuals and groups scientists and writers. Our programs range from Whether you’re looking for some family fun in home. Best of all, $100 per participant benefits (informal, K-12, scouts, Road Scholar, college) birds to watercolors to geology and include nature, or an educational experience, we have KS Wild’s work to expand the Wild Rogue through science and art-related programs. comfortable accommodations in our guest you covered! Visit our website for detailed Wilderness. Lodging options, seasonal food service, museum, lodges with delicious, local organic meals served information about our offerings and three bookshop–on Malheur NWR. in our lakeside dining hall. different locations in Eagle County. Phone: 541-488-5789 Phone: 360-854-2599 Email: [email protected] Phone: 541-493-2629 Email: [email protected] Phone: 970-827-9725 www.kswild.org Email: [email protected] www.ncascades.org/get_outside Email: [email protected] www.malheurfieldstation.org www.walkingmountains.org

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36 High Country News April 13, 2015 Wildlife Expeditions of University of Wyoming Teton Science Schools Zoology Department

700 Coyote Canyon Road 3166 1000 E Univ Ave Jackson, WY 83001 Laramie, WY 82070

Wildlife Expeditions of Teton Science Schools is Ecuador. 10-day trips (20-30-Jul or 3-13-Aug) the premier safari tour provider in and around to biodiversity hotspot on west slope of Andes, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. As emphasizing birds and their behaviors. Milpe Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s original safari provider, Reserve is at 1,100 meters; also excursions to our experienced guides offer educational tours cloud forest (2,000 meters) and lowland forest year-round in a stunning natural environment (350 meters). $2,700 cost includes airfare and that are fun for the entire family. all in-country transport, food and lodging.

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Wyoming Outdoor Council

262 Lincoln Street Lander, WY 82520

Get off Wyoming’s beaten track with a field tour of the rugged Red Desert. Bursting with wild badlands, towering buttes, expansive sand dunes, and more, this expansive landscape is one of Wyoming’s best–kept secrets. We’ll provide natural history expertise, decades of desert stories, and a whole lot of fun.

Phone: 307-332-7031 Email: [email protected] www.wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org

www.hcn.org High Country News 37 38 High Country News April 13, 2015 Essay AND PHOTOGRAPHS By CRAIG CHILDS

Children in Barbaric Country

n the glacial enclave of Whittier, Alaska, the man who rents sea kayaks asked the three dads in our group to step into his boatshed. A broad-shouldered man, middle-aged like the rest of us, he leaned against his desk in the corner of the room. “As a father, I’m appeal- ing to you,” he said. “You should rethink your plans.” IWe were about to set off on a nine-day expedition with seven adults and five children into the wilderness islands of Prince William Sound, a country of dark, mountainous forests and vast glaciers unloading into the sea where icebergs ground on rocky shores. “I won’t turn business away,” the man continued. “You can do whatever you want, but this looks like a mistake waiting to happen.” It was the ratio that worried him: too many kids, not enough grown-ups. When he sent out children, it was usually one or two in a clump of athletic, keenly dressed outdoor folk. We looked more like a tribe. I’d come with my two boys, aged 6 and 10. Steve, a gray and grizzled orchard farmer from western Colorado, had a 10-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy. And Irvin, a Filipino-American Forest Service biologist and wildland firefighter from Southern California, was a solo dad with a 4-year-old bruiser of a son. Irvin and I had both worked as backcountry guides and trained in emergency medicine, and Steve had the skills and demeanor of an Eagle Scout. We’d be fine, we assured the man. “Have you ever seen a kid die from hypothermia?” he responded. None of us had. Steve shook his head. “I’d rather not,” he said. What we were planning was different from any of our adventures in the Lower 48, the boatman warned, the consequences more immediate. Little bodies can lose heat fast when dumped in icy Alaskan waters. But we weren’t planning to island-hop, racing through a guidebook as if to a finish line, we explained. We’d be slower, more methodical, careful. We wanted to get to know the geography of just one sheltered corner of the sound, spending more time on foot than in kayaks. The boatman seemed unconvinced. “Are you outfitted for bears?” he asked. Steve gave a slow nod. “We’ve got it as covered as we’re going to,” he said.

Of course, there are risks involved when you take children into deep wilderness. I’d seen enough fresh kills in bear country to know what happens to small, fragile prey. Father and son, facing page, return from We had a good plan, though. Put the right group of people checking the shrimp pot. Top, Will, almost 12, gathers clams in the midnight dusk of together, with a good mix of skills and personalities, and South-Central Alaska. Above, the annelid you could do damn near anything with kids. Throw in a ra- worm Will wanted to put down his sister’s dio to hail a passing boat in an emergency, and at least one shirt. firearm (ours was a .357 magnum, not the best for bears, but better than sticks and stones), and you have yourself a family adventure in the bush.

www.hcn.org High Country News 39 It’s better than leaving the children behind. Whenever I Back at home, it’s dishes and books, toys on the floor and … traveled in Alaska without my two young boys, I never heard who broke this?… or that? You can afford to take your kids’ the end of it. My youngest, even when he was 3, would be out- wellbeing for granted for longer chunks of time. Out here, you raged. How could I leave them at home for this one? What kind or someone you profoundly trust has to know where they are of parent was I trying to be? My job was to bring them inside at every moment. In the wilderness, the image of them burns my life, guiding them through the rooms of my own landscape. deeper into your mind, their every gesture magnified, every They didn’t have to know the weight of my concern for their leap and shriek, every strike of knife on flint, every drawing of welfare. Our task as adults was to bring them here and get a wildflower. them out alive. On the third day, we explored the southern perimeter of our And so we set out. Smacking waves for three hours in a small island by water, paddling around coves and gray bedrock steel boat, we wound between islands, cathedrals of mountains shoals. As our gaggle of sea kayaks moved a quarter mile into and glaciers passing around us. When the boat nosed into the open water, a humpback whale spouted to our left. “Look!” I cove on a small, anonymous island about 60 miles from Whit- told Jasper, my 10-year-old, who sat in the front of the kayak tier, we leaned over the edges looking down into clear water, letting his paddle drag lightly in the water, looking down into rocks armed with starfish. Wearing knee-high mud boots, I the fathomless vaults of Prince William Sound. jumped in with Will, Steve’s 12-year- He looked up in time to see the old son, and we ducked through the whale slide back under, its fluke last “It’s not alders, checking for high tidelines and to go. Low storm clouds bruised the clearings big enough to camp in. Will sky. For a minute, we stared into water was ready for adventure. He would be and clouds, the same shape and color, that I our fire starter with his new knife, a no real sense of up or down but for magnesium fire-starter rod, and some the sporadic islands. When nothing don’t dryer lint brought from home. His dad else happened, Jasper returned to the had given him four dry matches to last study of his paddle blade in the water, the entire trip. captivated by its ripples. want to We found a clearing, then circled I kept watch, and when a second back to each other on a swift scout- spout appeared, I shouted again. The ing mission. “This look good to you?” I whale was about a hundred feet to our be here, asked. The straggle-haired boy nodded left. Spray rose 40 feet in the air and eagerly: “Yeah.” curled into mist followed by a great, I do,” We unloaded our full complement windy inhalation, as the whale turned on the shaggy shores of the cove. Then for its next dive. An obsidian-green the boat left us, to return in nine days. spine slid into the water followed by she said. By late afternoon, we had two camps flukes flipping upward, casting off a set up. One was for the kitchen (and rain of seawater. Jasper said, “Did it go the bears, if they wanted it), the other under us?” I said it must have. “But held our tents and our children, who’d The boy watched the whale dive be sighing in their sleep. again, its fluke lifting and then sliding you’ve In the long, warm light of July, Will’s beneath the surface. When it disap- 10-year-old sister, Adair, plopped down peared, Jasper touched his paddle to on a rock outcrop beside our saltwater the water, as if a whale were no more inter- cove. The smell of the outgoing tide exciting than the small roller-coaster mixed with moss and spruce duff, and ripples he was making, all sense of the younger children squealed and splashed in the tidal pools. scale thrown to the wind. fered Adair set out her colored pencils on the dark, iron-hard rock: blue, orange, red and purple. With a sketchbook open in A few days in, we ran out of juice boxes. Then candy bars with her lap, she began drawing flowers. A silky-headed seal popped became scarce. My wife stood over the cooler and, without look- up in the cove, studied her a few moments, then slipped under- ing directly at anyone, said to the forest, to the seawater cove, water with hardly a ripple. “Where are the rest of the snacks, you guys?” my life.” Adair flicked between pencils, flopping her black rubber She meant two of the dads: Irvin and me. We had flown in boots back and forth. “I don’t really have a good pink,” she said, a day early to hit the grocery stores in Anchorage. We’d gotten half to herself, half to me. “Isn’t this just a crazy world?” a lot of grains and nuts and cheap cases of Indian food packets. It was my fault she was missing a state gymnastic meet But in the rush and jet lag, we’d neglected to do an accurate and a friend’s water-park birthday party back in Colorado. snack assessment. Snacks — appetite suppressants and mood She blamed me; I’d come up with this stupid Alaska plan and enhancers for kids. Without enough snacks, our foodstuffs were wrecked her schedule. “It’s not that I don’t want to be here, I being depleted faster than planned. do,” she said. “But you’ve interfered with my life.” Becky, the orchard mom, a slight and brazen woman with Adair grew up on a farm and had seen all manner of life sturdy hands and a big, open laugh, nodded slowly, as if sur- and death. She was comfortable in nature, would be the first to prised the discovery had taken this long. “Maybe we should plunge her hands fearlessly into a slick nest of seaweed, plac- add up what we’ve got left,” she said. ing limpets at the tips of her 10 outstretched fingers. But she By we, Becky meant the women: the two moms and our was outside her comfort zone in deeper wilderness than she’d friend Bethany. Bethany had come with her boyfriend, a street ever seen. cop from Denver who carried the .357, every member an invalu- She was drawing cosmos flowers, the kind that grew in her able part of the tribe. She and Becky sat down with a notebook mother’s terra-cotta pots back home. She said she didn’t think and began calling out orders, making the rest of us dig though cosmos grew in Alaska. “I wish we had a better way to commu- boxes and metal-lined dry-bags to figure out what we had left. nicate,” she told me as she continued drawing. “What if one of Using the notebook, they planned each meal. Irvin and I had us gets hurt? How can we get to civilization? I don’t know what not thought to do this. We’d flown by the seat of our pants, ap- would happen if one of us slipped on these rocks and broke a parently too much. bone. What happens if there’s a bear attack? What if we don’t know what to do?” I used to take kids into the wilderness as a hired guide. “You’re with good people,” I said. “I’m not worried.” The expeditions ranged from a few days to a couple weeks. Adair stopped drawing for a moment and looked at me over Most often, this was in the desert. I loaded up on supplies in the top of her notebook, unimpressed. Yuma, Arizona, and hauled unsuspecting high-schoolers into

40 High Country News April 13, 2015 landscapes of scorpions, tarantulas and cactus. A girl from Los Angeles saw a shooting star for the first time on one of these trips. We were in canoes along the lower Colorado River, on a night paddle, where we all tied up and leaned silently back, floating and watching the sky. When a meteorite skidded over us, just a little streak of light, the girl looked at me, her eyes excited and puzzled. She couldn’t even form the question: What was that? As parents, we have the chance to be ushers, opening a door into wilderness and watching as our children walk out into vast new worlds. In many ways, the kids are more open than we are, seamlessly moving into whatever comes next, Adair laying her colored pencils on the ground, studying flowers, Jasper gazing at the whale, equally entranced by the ripples from his paddle. We did things with our kids that other parents would consider dirty or foolhardy or downright dangerous. But we believed that our kids should grow up in our lives, experience the world firsthand, get it all over their hands and faces — moss, wind, water and the shroud of the sky. There were basic rules for the children: Never leave adult sight, always be with a buddy, inform us of every potty break. Each child carried a whistle, and the older ones had good knives. Bears, though numerous in this part of the state, gradually became less of a concern. Given enough fish, coastal grizzlies can reach up to 1,400 pounds, but they tend to be less aggres- sive than inland bears; their life along narrow shorelines and crowded rivers forces them to become more social. Besides, our children made so much noise wherever they went, crashing through the woods, screaming at the tops of their lungs, that we figured all the bears on our island were huddled on the opposite end, with their paws covering their heads, wishing we’d leave. I’d been worried about bears and hypothermia, not so much about food. Perhaps I should have reconsidered my priorities back in Anchorage.

On the fifth night, near midnight, I sat at the edge of the kitchen tarp with Becky. Rain fell in the dusk light. The tent lights were out, the kids asleep. All the food that wasn’t in bear boxes had been packed into bags and hung as high and intricately as possible. We had rigged a pulley system over a sturdy spruce, suspending about a hundred pounds of food 30 feet above the tidal flats. Becky and I had just finished cleaning up after the nightly rampage. We’d put away toothbrushes and picked up stray, damp articles of clothing, hanging them on guy-wires from the kitchen tarp. Now, Becky sat on a cooler, whittling a stick into a pile of shavings. I asked what she thought about the gender roles we’d developed as wilderness parents. She took a breath, slivered off another curl, and told me it seemed clear that the women were planning the meals, doing most of the cooking, while the men steamed clams, cracking them open and popping the morsels in Adair, 10, facing were building fires and catching fish. our mouths like peanuts. The mothers stood back and watched, page, sports a limpet The mothers knew where each kid was at any moment, she waiting for food poisoning. collection on her said, and what they were doing, who was cold, who had spilled Irvin was our marine specialist: He’d say yes to one thing, fingertips, the fleshy hot chocolate all over their pants, who couldn’t find their socks. no to another. “Yes” to the many mollusks we were digging mollusks suctioned It didn’t matter whose kids they were. “I think if we stayed up; “No” to the two-foot-long annelid worm Will wanted to put to her skin. Top, children play in a here longer, our gender roles would evolve,” she said. “We’ve got down his sister’s shirt. lily pad pond in the three strong, competent women who are probably just as happy By Day Nine, when the boat returned for us, we had ex- island interior; it fishing and paddling and lighting fires as, say, boiling ‘Tasty plored most of the surrounding coves, and had even ventured to was hard to convince Bites.’ ” other islands and inlets. We knew our spread of resources. We them to climb The women may have suspected that Irvin and I had inten- still had some rice left and several packets of Indian food, and out and continue tionally shorted us on food. It’s something he and I might have we probably could have survived happily for another week, even exploring with thought of; it gives you a reason to step up the foraging. Fishing without juice boxes. Left out here long enough, we could have the adults. Above, lines were now constantly out, and we checked and moved a turned into Robinson Crusoe. (Or maybe Lord of the Flies.) children fascinated shrimp pot until we found the sweet spot. At dinner, kids prof- But it was time to leave; we were meant for the mainland. by the smallest fered seaweed, collecting different species along the shore. They The boat arrived like a warship, prow driving up on shore to al- details in Prince William Sound. lightly toasted the preferred species of red-ribbon, Palmaria most touch our kitchen. I felt like darting back into the woods, hecatensis, with olive oil, calling it sea bacon, making it on the throwing rocks at it from the shadows, racing off to live with stove until no one could eat anymore. the bears, but the kids were already running up on deck. They Every meal now included something recently alive: fried were ready for the next adventure, whatever it might be, a lingcod added to Kashmir spinach, the probing head of a prawn whale, a ripple, a steel boat to carry us home. We loaded up and sticking like a radio antennae from a bowl of watery refried left our cove, turning back toward Whittier. The boat slapped beans. We were gradually going primal. By breakfast on Day over waves. Little heads fell into laps, the children lulled to Six, the fathers and Will stood around a plastic bucket of sleep by the water, as the islands parted for our safe return. n

www.hcn.org High Country News 41 MARKETPLACEALA

Notice to our advertisers: You can place skills. Courses are held in northern Arizona ences to [email protected] by Friday, résumé and cover letter with salary require- classified ads with our online classified sys- and combine practical skills with the fields April 10th. Visit www.cvidaho.org for more ment to [email protected]. Include tem. Visit hcn.org/classifieds. April 13 is of anthropology and Southwest natural his- information. Development Director in the subject line. the deadline to place your print ad in the tory. Visit www.apathways.com. April 27 issue. Call 800-311-5852, or e-mail Jobs In Great Places — CoolWorks.com: Montana Conservation [email protected] for help or infor- Become A Certified Nature Retreat Summer, seasonal, career and volunteer op- Coordinator — Greater Yellowstone Co- mation. For more information about our Leader or go on a nature retreat. Led by portunities in great places. National parks, alition seeks highly motivated, organized current rates and display ad options, visit two leaders in the eco-education field, Dave guest ranches, camps, canoe, kayak and manager for full-time position. Responsible hcn.org/advertising. and Helene Van Manen. whitewater outfitters, ski areas, lodges, re- for coordinating GYC conservation work in www.etreatCoaches.com. sorts and more. Most employers advertising Montana. Develops active constituencies for Advertising Policy: We accept advertising on CoolWorks.com offer employee housing, protecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosys- because it helps pay the costs of publishing Facilitation and Mediation of Public and meals, recreation and more, some with RV tem (GYE) from a broad base of individuals, a high-quality, full-color magazine, where Environmental Conflicts. Boulder, Colo. May sites. More than just a niche job board, Cool- groups, communities in Montana. Responsi- topics are well-researched and reported 5-7, 2015. CDR Associates is the premier Works.com also offers endless inspiration, ble for developing, implementing strategies in an in-depth manner. The percentage of trainer in mediation and facilitation skills resources and networking. Celebrating our on a broad range of conservation. Represents the magazine’s income that is derived from and processes and provides expert medi- 20th year connecting adventurous job seek- GYC in the public. Building strong relation- advertising is modest, and the number of ation, facilitation and collaborative assis- ers with amazing opportunities. ships with state, federal agency personnel, advertising pages will not exceed one-third tance to government agencies, industry, partner groups, communities, landowners, of our printed pages annually. communities, and NGOs across the West, funders is a key component. Email letter of the nation, and the world. For more infor- New Mexico Wildlife Federation — interest, résumé, 3 references, 2 writing sam- Business Opportunities mation and to register visit www.mediate. The state’s oldest sportsmen’s conservation ples to: [email protected]. Enter: org. Call or email: 303-442-7367 or CDR@ organization, seeks a Development Director/ MCC 2015 and your full name in the Conservationist? Irrigable Land? Stellar mediate.org. Grants Administrator to implement a compre- subject line. No phone calls. seed-saving NGO is available to serious part- hensive development program that seeks to ner. Package must include financial sup- maintain and expand all sources of funding, EMPLOYMENT port. Details: http://seeds.ojaidigital.net. focusing on charitable grants. The successful Yellowstone Program Manager — Wildfire Defense Systems Inc. — candidate will cover all grant phases, includ- National Parks Conservation Association Visit Vortex Sites Tour Company — For Hiring professional wildland firefighters. ing research, outreach, proposal, tracking, (NPCA), the nation’s leading national park sale in Sedona! Forest Service permits con- Please check our website at www.wildfire-de- relationship management and reporting. advocacy organization, seeks a dynamic, nected with this company also available. fense.com to view current job positions. BA/BS degree, nonprofit or philanthrop- self-starting, and committed individual to Linda: 928-282-8966. ic experience and five-plus years in grants lead our Yellowstone Field Office. The ideal Conservation Voters for Idaho seeks a administration preferred. We want someone candidate is highly motivated and comfort- classes and instruction dynamic, experienced leader to serve as Exec- with effective verbal and writing skills, who is able working on difficult conservation poli- highly organized, detail-oriented and driven Ancient Pathways offers one-to-10 day utive Director for it and its sister organization cy issues. We seek demonstrated experience CVI Education Fund. Ideal candidates will to meet or exceed deadlines and deliverables. developing and implementing effective con- experiential programs in bushcraft, outdoor NMWF is a small, tight-knit office, and the survival and safety, and traditional living have a proven record of strong leadership, servation campaign strategies, building com- fundraising ability, and political experience. successful candidate must be able to work munity and bi-partisan political support, and Send résumé, cover letter, and three refer- independently and as part of a team. Submit fundraising. Travel in the Yellowstone region

42 High Country News April 13, 2015 and to Washington, D.C. is required. The ap- ganizational development, implementation, ing base of 13,000 members, GCA’s results schedule; engage in advocacy and policy plicant needs to have a strong public policy program development, financial oversight enhance visitor experiences and aid critical development within a small, tight-knit staff; background, a focused interest in conserving and fundraising. See full job description at conservation efforts. GCA seeks an experi- develop briefs/white papers on policy issues; wildlife and other natural resources, and en- www.nwstraitsfoundation.org To Apply: Send enced leader to grow fundraising, develop- understand significant developments and joy working in a team environment. a résumé, cover letter, and three references ment, and membership. Reporting to the CEO, trends in wildlife conservation and public to: [email protected]. s/he will evolve an established program to lands; and oversee and coordinate with field Vicky Adcock Welch Communications the next level; guide efforts of the develop- organizers. BA/BS degree and five-plus years Intern — Methow Valley Citizens’ Council Outdoor Program Assistant Director ment staff; work with the board, donors, and organizing/policy management experience offers one year position designed to use the St. Lawrence University seeks to fill a recur- park leaders; provide annual and campaign preferred. Essential skills include effective intern’s technical skills, expand knowledge ring, 10-month (Aug. 1–May 31) position of oversight; and, as part of the senior team, verbal and written communication, project and passion for strong environmental advo- Assistant Director in the Outdoor Program. collaborate on strategies and plans to grow and time management, organized and de- cacy, and encourage long term engagement The Outdoor Program provides quality out- support and advance park priorities. The tail-oriented and driven to meet or exceed in the field. Intern will work in social media, door recreational and educational program- ideal candidate has passion for the mission, deadlines and deliverables. Must also enjoy website design, communication and outreach, ming to the campus community, locally in relationship cultivation knowhow, excellent working independently and as part of a team. while cultivating professional relationships. the Adirondack Mountains, throughout North team and project management skills, an out- Submit résumé and cover letter with salary Potential to advance to employment after one America, and internationally. To view the going, communicative, and analytical style, requirement to www.nmwildlife@nmwildlife. year. Located in rural Methow Valley, Wash- complete position description and to apply plus experience leading fully-integrated fund- org. Include Conservation Director in the sub- ington State. 20 hours per week. Hourly com- online, please go to our job opportunities raising initiatives; growing major gifts and ject line. pensation commensurate with experience. Web page at www.employment.stlawu.edu. planned giving; empowering skilled teams; Full job description at mvcitizens.org. Review of applications will begin immediate- and cultivating board, partner, donor, and Send inquiries, résumé and cover letter to ly and continue until the position is filled. St. stakeholder relationships. Bachelor’s degree GENERAL INTEREST is required. GCA offers a competitive salary, [email protected]. Open until filled. Lawrence University is an Equal Opportunity Environmentally conflicted? Embrace Employer. For additional information about excellent benefits, and relocation assistance to Flagstaff, AZ. To access the job description your inner conservation angst. The Coalition for the Upper South Platte St. Lawrence, please visit www.stlawu.edu. “What Would Cliven Do?” bumperstickers. A Colorado nonprofit is seeking a staff or application: www.grandcanyon.org.To apply, send application, r sum , and cover letter $1 apiece with SASE. Write: accountant. For more info or to apply, visit é é P.O. Box 9834, Boise, ID 83707. www.cusp.ws/jobs. Chief Philanthropy Officer — Grand Can- to: Laura Jones at [email protected]. yon Association (GCA), Flagstaff Ariz. Excit- HEALTH and WELLNESS WorkInFarming.com — ing, one-of-a-kind opportunity to champion a New Mexico Wildlife Federation — Where job seekers and farmers connect. revered national treasure, the Grand Canyon! The state’s oldest sportsmen’s conservation Colorado Aromatics cultivated skin care Facebook Twitter Linkedin Google+. As the nonprofit partner of Grand Canyon organization, seeks a Conservation Director Natural botanical farm-to-skin products, lav- National Park, GCA provides private funding to oversee development and implementation ender products and gifts. Northwest Straits Foundation seeks to preserve and protect GCNP. GCA connects of wildlife conservation/public lands policies www.coloradoaromatics.com. an Executive Director. 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www.hcn.org High Country News 43 MARKETPLACE

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www.hcn.org High Country News 47 Essay | By Udo Zindel

My shattered, unquenchable romance with the West

t must have started when I was place itself. Verde Nuclear Power Plant, then the seven. In a black-and-white photo Now, half a century and over a dozen world’s largest reactor complex. My own taken for “Fasnacht” — South trips later, I think the West is the most West Germany, a country smaller than German Mardi Gras — I’m sport- misunderstood and disrespected region in Arizona, took the lead in developing ing a cowboy hat and have a the United States. alternative energies and making nuclear bandana around my neck. This showed power obsolete. Imy fellow Germans that I was strong first saw the West with my own eyes Phoenix also lacked what Europeans The West is full and courageous, close friends with the Iin August of 1985. I was 28 and a treasure in their cities — a vibrant, at- of contradictions, Indians. Their faraway home in the Fulbright exchange student at Arizona tractive center. It had copied Los Angeles’ American West was exciting and some- State University. As I flew from New dysfunctional model of suburban sprawl, and I am one times dangerous, but I was never afraid York to Phoenix, I gazed in fascination and its voters rejected every attempt to because the good guys always won. at the changing landscape below. Like improve public transport. Some scholars of them. Cowboy Like every true German boy, I de- the settlers a century ago, I saw the trace modern suburbia to Jefferson’s hats now make voured Karl May’s novels about the Wild green forests of the Midwest give way to early-19th century ideal of agrarian West: the tales of Winnetou, a virtuous prairie, then to vast, mountainous desert democracy — middle-class families living me suspicious, Apache chief, and his Anglo-American pockmarked with bunchgrass, shrubs like small farmers on their own little al- especially blood brother, “Old Shatterhand.” As and cacti. I could hardly contain my lotments, each with a bungalow, two-car he was dying, Winnetou converted to excitement. garage, lawn and pool. But after experi- in cities. Christianity, a twist that took the story For the first months, I lived in my encing Phoenix, that theory seemed out too far for me. So I turned to the “Te- own personal Western movie: I was the of touch with the desert environment. cumseh” series by Fritz Steuben, the star, a light-skinned Suebian dude who The city planners and architects had great-grandson of Baron Steuben, who bushwhacked his way through the laby- learned nothing from the cultures that helped train Washington’s troops at Val- rinths of Arizona State University and — had sustained themselves for centu- ley Forge. I was taken by his detailed, on weekends — explored the wild back- ries in this harsh and fragile land. And vivid accounts of Native American life country. I was stunned by the countless many Arizonans derided Arcosanti, — and by the gruesome history of a war canyons and the rainbow-colored deserts, Paolo Soleri’s architectural experiment of extermination. I quit riding with the by the high wooded mountains and the in Paradise Valley, as a hangout for old cowboys in my imagination and instead friendly small towns. I had finally found hippies and slackers, though I thought it walked thousands of miles with the great my way to the Land of the Free. embodied one of the few viable visions for Shawnee, determined to forge a confed- The national parks became my favor- sustainability in the desert. eracy of tribes to fight Anglo-American ite institution of higher learning, even I left the West after my Fulbright encroachment. better than the university. There was no ended, but returned about a dozen times I kept reading as I grew older, and I better place to study Ancient Puebloan as a reporter for German Public Radio watched Western movies, from Hollywood culture, for instance, than remote Keet and as a tourist. The more I saw, the adventures to the disillusioned, tough Seel Ruin in northern Arizona, where I more my feelings grew — both love and a Italian “spaghetti Westerns,” produced stood by a knee-high dungheap left by bitter sense of disillusionment. in Europe. Slowly, I realized that the domesticated turkeys back in the 13th Nevada was a particularly brutal romantic American West of my childhood century. teacher. In late November 1991, I pulled might have nothing in common with the But as the novelty passed, I began to off State Highway 447 in search of some see a more nuanced West. I learned that peace and quiet. I had just witnessed a Young Zindel, cowboys were once called “cowpokes” and demonstration of highly sophisticated Germany. that, far from being considered heroes, software at “Strike University,” a train- Courtesy Udo Zindel they stood at the bottom of a hierarchical ing facility for fighter pilots at Fallon society governed by dollar bills, of which Naval Air Station. The clean-cut airmen they earned bitterly few. Indians were showed us how they could — simulta- now Native Americans, yet they remained neously — track every move of up to an often-overlooked minority who lived in three-dozen bombers and fighter planes, what struck me as Third World islands as they conducted mock assaults and air within the U.S. — reservations plagued battles. It was unsettling; I lost a grand- by poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, father in World War II, and though I ad- disease and general disorientation. mired the smart young pilots, I couldn’t Even the cityfolks in Phoenix seemed help thinking of the pain and suffering trapped in what a friend of mine called their missiles and bombs would inflict on a “godless, soulless, cultureless” place. the ground. Fallon is where fighter pilots Some middle-class families spent $400 trained for Operation Desert Storm, and I a month on air conditioning and long suspected it would produce more fighters hours every day stuck in automobiles. In for future wars. the 1980s, the “Valley of the Sun” could My well-worn Rand McNally Atlas have been one of the world’s centers for shows military reservations across the photovoltaic and thermo-solar energy. West: Yuma Proving Grounds, White Instead, its electricity came from Palo Sands Missile Range, Chocolate Moun-

48 High Country News April 13, 2015 tain Gunnery Range, Hawthorne Army Karl, a long-forgotten great-grand-uncle tolerance for the modern West’s aggres- Depot, Nellis Air Force Bombing and who emigrated to the U.S. in 1847. Karl, sive stance against taxes and government Gunnery Range, and the Nevada Test a soldier, fought at the Second Battle and regulations, and its overuse of the Site, a crater-strewn wasteland, symbol of Pyramid Lake on June 2, 1860. He mythology of rugged individualism. My of mankind’s ability to self-destruct. described it in a letter to his parents in heroes are the people who are striving European NATO Forces, including Ger- Stuttgart: “I almost lost my life, because to live sensibly and sustainably in the man soldiers, also train on these grounds one bullet went through my hair right West, much as the one-armed explorer — perhaps the West’s darkest places. over my right ear without injuring me. John Wesley Powell advocated 140 years As the late Charles Bowden wrote in his I was so stunned at the moment, that I ago. And I hope, and believe, that their book, Redline, “Americans hate their could not find a cartridge.” number is growing. deserts and consider them useful only for Those letters reframed my relation- On my desk at home in Germany sits exercises in assault.” ship with the West. I can no longer blame a photo that keeps the West ever-present After half an hour in the shade of a “Americans” alone for the darker parts to me. It shows a colorful sunset from little cottonwood, I turned back onto the of the region’s history, because my own Grand Canyon’s Imperial Point, looking highway, only to stop again a few miles family’s history in the West goes back so toward the Hopi lands; huge, lead-colored away, drawn by a historical marker near much further than that of most residents thunderheads loom in the distance. the Truckee River. The sign commemo- today. Karl was a political prisoner dur- The picture brings back hundreds of rated the Battle of Pyramid Lake, fought ing Germany’s Vormärz period, yet he sweet memories: of Chicano friends in between volunteers, a U.S. Army de- fought Native Americans and helped to Arizona mining towns, of Native Ameri- tachment and a band of Paiute Indians, destroy their culture. He did this despite can friends at the university, of ranchers “I realized that the who were trying to cover their families’ his love for the Native people. In a letter who welcomed me into their homes. It romantic American retreat into the Black Rock Desert. I had from Fortress Alcatraz, he explained why conjures up hikes and vistas and camp- West of my childhood never even heard of it. I took pictures of he re-enlisted with the U.S. Army: “City sites where I encountered indescribable might have nothing in the marker and the battlefield without life was really against my grain and I beauty. Around the equinox, the sun common with the place really knowing why. longed to be back in the wilderness with shines through my window directly onto itself,” says Udo Zindel. Four years later, around Christmas, the Indians.” the photo, and its light enlivens the col- Schoolboys play I was sitting with my stepfather at the The West is full of contradictions, and ors so that the canyon seems on fire. Cowboys and Indians in Weslaco, Texas in long table of the Tyrolian mountain farm I am one of them. Cowboy hats now make I’m not sure when I’ll visit again, but 1942. Arthur Rothstein/ my family has rented for decades, when me suspicious, especially in cities. They I know I will return. And when I do, I’ll Library of Congress, Prints & he asked out of the blue, “Does Pyramid are too often donned by people who hide discover new things that will shatter and Photographs Division, FSA/ Lake ring a bell for you?” He had found their own economic and political agendas rekindle my unquenchable romance with OWI Collection, [LC-USF33- an old suitcase filled with letters from underneath the broad brims. I have little this extraordinary place. n 003619-M3]

www.hcn.org High Country News 49 Raccoonboy’s guide to exploring

I moved to Colorado Springs to attend college when I was 18 fences. You know these creeks. We all do. They gather shopping years old. Like so many good outdoorsy New Englanders before carts, empty vodka bottles, thick brush and raccoons. They are me, it wasn’t books and lectures that drew me west so much as both repulsive and intriguing. They are part of the landscape of it was the mountains, the Rockies. I figured my four years on 21st century America, like it or not. the southern end of Colorado’s Front Range would be filled with For two years, I aimlessly, joyously, filthily explored the alpine scrambles, sudden thunderstorms, airy bivouacs, and sunken spaces, the ghost spaces, the spaces routinely over- wide views. looked and underloved. George Mallory said it best in reference Little did I know. to climbing Everest: “Because it’s there.” Slowly but surely, with By my sophomore year, I’d hiked a few hundred miles and each Tuesday afternoon and Saturday morning spent sloshing climbed a dozen or so 14,000-foot peaks, but something felt and slinking and discovering, the mountain ridges slipped from off. Getting in the car each weekend to drive into the high my mind. Eventually, I myself became a raccoon. Not a real rac- country was fun, but it was also a chore — and alienating, too. coon, of course, but something close — a raccoonboy. A creature Each outing left me more lost in the place I actually lived, the caught between the foothills and the flatlands, between civiliza- Monday-through-Friday maze of strip malls, car dealerships tion and the wild. A masked adventurer with muck beneath his and industrial blight. After pulling an all-nighter writing a term paws. paper on, say, Plato’s Theory of Forms, I needed a brain-cleanse, So: If your travel funds are running low, or if you’re tired and I needed it fast. of driving hours to seek postcard-quality scenery, or if you’ve Where was my local nature? Where was my Colorado finally had enough of the notion that excitement always lies Springs backyard? elsewhere, beyond the glittery horizon — here, grab ahold of my Turns out it was, well, right there in the backyard. Snak- tail. Come along with Raccoonboy. I’m no expert, but I’ll gladly ing through and beneath the city grid were a number of sickly share with you some things I’ve learned about breaking into yet wondrous waterways, the living, flowing energy of the place what, for lack of a better term, we might call the Trash Can of corralled by concrete culverts, dirt embankments and razor-wire the Everyday.

50 High Country News April 13, 2015 By Leath Tonino the urban wilds Illustration by Bryce Gladfelter

Pick A City, Any City Don’t Touch The Wildlife Perhaps Los Angeles is the Yosemite Valley of urban wilderness Humans are animals, too, right? Yes, and a big part of the and Phoenix is the Grand Canyon of sprawl. I don’t know, nor braided fear-fun of exploring a city’s ratty fringe and shriveled do I particularly care. Idealizing any landscape, whether pris- heart is bumping into other wandering conspecifics. The maze tine or paved, has a way of dulling our senses to the miraculous of alleys and underpasses is not just your playground, it’s also possibilities of the here and now. Here and now in Las Cruces, somebody’s home, somebody who has likely fallen on harder New Mexico? In Twin Falls, Idaho? Heck, yes, to both, and to a times than you can even imagine. So, please, show consider- hundred other cities, big and small. The great liberating joy of ation for tarp encampments and stashes of what might at first finding nature everywhere is – duh, finding nature everywhere. appear as broken, soggy junk. Meth-heads and screaming weir- Start where you are. Step into that manicured park or desig- does can be threatening, but I’ve found that most folks are kind nated greenbelt, then work your way out to the weedy lots, the and interesting. They know the territory, and they often have abandoned buildings, the shadowy zones near exit ramps. an uncanny sense of incoming weather.

Go With The Flow Gear 101 There are countless portals to the urban wilds — trails, alleys, If you’re a dork, fine, bring your GPS and your GoPro Selfie Wal-Mart roofs, the list goes on — but in my opinion, nothing Stick and your cyborg Bluetooth headset and all the rest. Per- beats a pinched, gurgling drainage. Gutters collect water. Water sonally, I’m a fan of baby carrots, a Swiss army knife and a har- collects life. Sometimes you get an open canal, sometimes a monica. Headlamps can be useful for nighttime missions, as can froggy trough, sometimes a trickling tunnel that beckons you beer. A fellow raccoonboy used to carry cans of spraypaint in a into the sub-freeway bowels. Once you sink your left boot in past canvas satchel, but again, that’s bad seed behavior. Go light. If the ankle, you’ll be surprised how eagerly the right boot will you think you need it, you probably don’t. follow. Leave No Trace When In Doubt, Climb Respect the gunky, funky cracks and crannies where crumpled A few years ago, I went on “vacation” and spent four days wan- orange parking cones collect and foxes rear their young. Give dering the San Francisco grid, each night setting a hammock those pups a wide berth. My policy on trash is as follows: I high in the crown of a redwood or cypress tree. My neighbors in will unearth cans and other artifacts for inspection (or just to the branches above the sidewalks were red-shouldered hawks, kick them around a bit), but I will not remove them from their scrub jays, rainstorms, and long lines of ants. One morning, habitat. Recycling is not the name of the game. Like the true when I returned to earth, I surprised a homeless guy sleeping in backcountry, urban wilderness cannot be improved upon. a cardboard bed against the tree’s trunk. A secret green metrop- olis awaits those who crane their necks. (Acrophobes needn’t Reading Can Be Fun feel left out; try clawing your way into a clump of shrubs.) Granted, you don’t want to bury your nose in a book at the expense of missing some smog-enriched sunset (nor get so Fences Are Meant for Hopping distracted you step on a snake or a rusty spike), but literature An important question: Is this legal? An honest answer: Beats can do wonders for deepening your engagement with the ground me. The goal is communion with elemental reality, with urban underfoot. Cities are thick — socially, historically, architectur- ecosystems, not with cops and ticked-off homeowners. If you’re ally, geologically, botanically and zoologically. Research what serious about following your own fascination, you might feel was going on in a given place 100 years ago. A book is a shovel. inclined to make like a dandelion seed and drift back and forth Dig a hole with it, and lower yourself in, headfirst. across the lines on human maps. Tsk, tsk! Bad seed. I myself have “accidentally” trespassed more times than I care to count, Stillness Is Your Buddy but that’s not to say you should. If you do, however, be sure to Great blue herons stand like statues in a pond by the scrap- tread lightly and always — I repeat always — plead ignorance. metal yard. Shabby cottonwoods near the train tracks speak to And apologize. those who listen. And the raccoons, they’ll all but shake your hand if you let them. I have sat vigil more often than I have Dress For Success waded, clambered, run and squirmed, and what I have learned Which is to say, dress for splinters, dog feces, cobwebs, toxic is that silence and patience are the urban naturalist’s best sludge, desperate heat, snow squalls, chicken-wire and knee- friends. Pretend each dumpster is a grizzly bear. Approach with deep cigarette butts. You want to feel loose, limber, flexible, caution, on tiptoes. Better yet, hunker down and watch. Wait free. My suggestion: Wear what you find. There isn’t a ditch in and see what happens, then wait some more and see what hap- all the West that won’t cough up a beat pair of jeans and a tat- pens next. tered sweatshirt if you give it a chance. Take your rags home, wash them, and you’ve got yourself a uniform. And Remember … There are worlds within worlds within worlds — to discover, to get lost in, to celebrate. We are all children with wonder spar- kling in our eyes, all foreigners here in the Local, the Normal, the Trash Can of the Everyday. Or at least we can be. As the Zen master Robert Aitken once wrote: “It is possible to train yourself to be dull. … The dull person is one who has practiced not noticing closely.” So get out. Pay attention. Keep your tail clean and your paws dirty. And do as Raccoonboy says: No matter how thirsty you are, never drink the water. n

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HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

ARIZONA a Hindu cleric had been invited to give the Does God care passionately about the right to invocation. The Idaho Statesman labeled bear arms? Republican Rep. Eddie Farnsworth Vick’s behavior, and that of two other boycot- kicked off a metaphysical debate in the Arizo- ting state senators, a “pitiful” prayer snub, na Legislature recently, when he asserted that and the Idaho Press-Tribune headlined its the Second Amendment guaranteed people editorial: “Time to end public prayers in the the God-given right to self-defense, reports the Statehouse?” For his part, Rajan Zed, presi- Phoenix New Times. Rep. Sally Ann Gonza- dent of the Universal Society of Hinduism, les, a Democrat, rose to disagree. “Twice on politely turned the other cheek and prayed to this floor I’ve heard members say that I have the “deity supreme” that the state’s elected the God-given right to bear arms,” she said, officials “may long together dwell in unity and “and since I know that God didn’t write the concord.” Given that four out of five people Constitution I just wanted to state that. And I in Idaho call themselves Christians, it is not vote ‘no.’ ” Another lawmaker echoed her take surprising that the Kootenai County Repub- on American history, praising the “humans, lican Central Committee recently considered great humans, who wrote the Constitution.” declaring Idaho a “Christian state.” In the Farnsworth countered by insisting that God Montana’s oldest trophy hunter. Carroll Van West/ same vein, reports the Los Angeles Times, weighed in on the Constitution because He got montanahistoriclandscape.com the Idaho’s Ada County Highway District involved in the Declaration of Independence; recently voted to start its public meetings with after all, it famously declares that “Ameri- bill sponsor Paul Ray argued recently in Salt a prayer — a policy they reversed after some cans are endowed by their Creator with certain Lake City that “a team of trained marksmen is citizens loudly protested that “God doesn’t have inalienable rights.” At that point, legislators ap- faster and more humane than the drawn-out much to do with asphalt.” parently agreed to disagree about God’s position deaths that have occurred in botched lethal injec- on the two gun bills in question. tions,” reports the Associated Press. Meanwhile, WASHINGTON a far different bill awaits action by the state The monthly Whatcom Watch, a community forum COLORADO Senate; if passed, it would allow patients with on government, environmental issues and me- Exactly what is a “conservative?” Freshman certain medical conditions to receive prescrip- dia, has been a blast of fresh air since 1992, tak- Republican State Rep. Dan Thurlow, who tions for edible marijuana. But here’s the rub: An ing on everything from coal terminals proposed represents Grand Junction, a very Republican agent of the federal Drug Enforcement Admin- in vulnerable locations to the alarming effects city in western Colorado, recently broke ranks istration warned that backcountry marijuana of dairy pollution, as illustrated in the recent with his party when he voted to ban “conversion farms harm the environment and even corrupt headline: “Got milk? Got manure!” There are therapy,” the controversial notion that assumes rabbits, who “had cultivated a taste for the mari- 48,964 cows in Whatcom County, and accord- mental health professionals can “cure” people juana … one of them refused to leave us. …” The ing to the Environmental Protection Agency, of being gay, reports the Grand Junction Daily Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham was each dairy cow can generate over 120 pounds Sentinel. “To me, the conservative position is particularly bemused by agent Matt Fairbanks’ of manure each day. This prodigious output to stay out of other people’s lives,” Thurlow remarks, especially given the current “nation- does not vanish into thin air; it gets dumped in explained, “and everybody should have the abil- wide epidemic of catnip abuse.” Fairbanks’ hare- unlined lagoons or spread as fertilizer on farm ity to live the lives they want. I’m not trying to raising stories failed to frighten his listeners; as fields. The result is pollution that compromises change anybody.” the Post concluded: “There was a time, not too the drinking water of 20,000 county residents, long ago, when drug warriors terrified a nation who depend on “one of the most contaminated UTAH with images of ‘the devil’s weed’ and ‘reefer mad- aquifers in the state.” So in case you’ve been Court-ordered deaths could change dramatically, ness.’ Now, it seems that enforcers of marijuana wondering, kids: That is not chocolate milk be- and noisily, in Utah, if firing squads make a law are conjuring up a stoned bunny?” ing spilled at your local dairy. comeback. The state Senate passed a bill that would make Utah the only state to allow firing IDAHO WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see squads to carry out a death penalty if execution Explaining that Hindus “worship cows,” Idaho hcn.org. drugs aren’t available. Just a decade ago, the State Sen. Steve Vick boycotted morning state abandoned firing squads as inhumane. But prayers at a recent legislative session because Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write [email protected].

High Elected officials (in Wyoming) have been moving to Country expand cloud seeding even though they lack convincing News “ For people who care about the West. proof that it works. At the same time, many elected High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a officials refuse to accept the existence of magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write global warming. High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or Allen Best, in his essay, “Cloud seeding is still a work in progress,” [email protected], or call 970-527-4898. from Writers” on the Range, hcn.org/wotr 52 High Country News April 13, 2015