Notes from Westwater

The magical sound of running water in the Canyon Country. Ted Palmer photo

Letting go and being grateful

“It’s dry – completely dry,” my hubby said as we drove the dirt road intersecting the basins in Cheyenne Bottoms. I stared in disbelief at the golden grasses and cattails growing where water once shimmered under the Kansas sky. Even more disturbing, some of the basins had only deeply cracked soil....

Looking west toward Trachyte Creek with the Little Rockies in the background. Ted Palmer photo

In search of White Canyon Town

White Canyon Town I hopscotched across the crusty mud deposited by Lake Powell. The mud had cracked two feet deep in places, so I needed to watch my step—as if I hadn’t been watching it the entire hike. It was getting late, but we were searching for where Tom McCourt’s grandparents once lived....

These sandstone spires at Hite overlook what once was the northern tip of Lake Powell, but has now been reduced to only the Colorado River. Courtesy photo

Finding Old Town Hite

“You’ll have to use your knees and feet,” my hubby told me as he tried to pull me over the lip of the cliff. Although we weren’t very high, maybe nine feet above the ground, I couldn’t convince my knees and feet to cooperate, so I dangled with my legs flared out behind me like superman in flight....

Discovering the mouth of Red Canyon while searching for Bert Loper’s Hermitage. Merry Palmer photo

Finding more than remnants at The Hermitage

We’ve searched for Bert Loper’s Hermitage three times. The first was during the summer of 2020. We explored Blue Notch Canyon, found the remnants of old mines, and hiked to a cliff overlooking Lake Powell and Good Hope Bay but saw no evidence of the ranch, long submerged under Lake Powell. Since...

It is like a barren alien planet on the way to Mike Canyon. Merry Palmer photo

Exploring otherworldy beauty in Mike Canyon

“For those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into supernatural reality.” – Mircea Eliade “I’ll walk to lessen the weight on my side,” I told my hubby as I crawled out of our Pioneer 500 at the base of the steep trail to Mike’s Canyon, named after Jim...

Ned Smith and Ted Palmer hard at work on the washed-out road from Piute Pass into Red Canyon. Merry Palmer photo

Washed out at Piute Pass

I could hear the clank of shovels hitting buried rocks and the men panting from exertion, but they didn’t talk much as they dug dirt from the side of the road to fill the crevices of the washed-out road from Piute Pass into Red Canyon. Ned Smith, Ted, and I had started from Blanding with our ATVs...

Water is flowing in Westwater Canyon after recent rains. Courtesy photo

A new way of seeing

Using a drawing pencil and pad, I traced the space around the table in my mom’s hospital room. The switch in my brain felt painful. I’d never noticed the negative or white space before, but Betty Edwards, Ph.D. had developed a series of exercises in her book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain...

Horned lizards symbolize health, strength, transformation, and, in some cultures, even God’s messengers. Ted Palmer photo

Downloading love, walking Omicron

“When you love you should not say, God is in my heart, but rather, I am in the heart of God.” ~ Kahlil Gibran As a high school freshman, I contracted a serious illness, ran a high temperature, and stayed in bed for two weeks. We were living in my great-grandparents’ old farmhouse at the time. My...

Gold Feathers

The lesser goldfinches in our yard often perch upside down on the sunflowers, busily plucking seeds from the mature heads. Holding on with their tiny feet, they ride the flowers like miniature ships as they sway in the breeze. The males with their gold breasts, black caps, and black-and-white...

Haunted Lantern Tour

Dustin, our guide, handed us each a long-burning candle inserted into the bottom of a bucket. We stood just inside the mouth of the cave where enough outside light illuminated an iron gate. “Iron,” Dustin intoned, “repels spirits and keeps them from leaving the cave. Once we pass that gate, our...