In the Hopi traditional calendar, December or Kyaamuya, is a time of quiet, reflections and stories. It is a time to reflect on the past year and what you want to improve upon in the coming year.
I like this idea of a reflective, peaceful time. A time to slow down and do less and think more.
What has 2018 meant to me? It was a good year with much to be thankful for. A job that is invigorating, challenging, ever changing, and meaningful. Smart, fun, kind, supportive colleagues. Time with family and to explore the Southwest. And an incredible partner in life, love, and outdoor adventure.
In December, Wade and I took a quick 2-night backpacking trip in our 'backyard park' of the Grand Canyon. We hiked down South Canyon to the Colorado River and spent two nights on the beach. Such are the short winter days at the bottom of the canyon that sunlight only hit the beach for around 4 hours that day, which Wade spent fishing and I spent writing. It was a bit chilly but such a beautiful route down and pleasant area to explore -- including a waterfall, a cave, and ruins.
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| The view from 'Stanton Cave', one of the many places we explored from our beach camp at the mouth of South Canyon |
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| Mid-day sun lighting up the Canyon |
December also brought some of the biggest snowfalls I've seen here at Hopi. Yes, it does snow in Arizona. How much depends entirely on the elevation. In Flagstaff at around 7,000 feet, it snows quite frequently, and even more in the mountains, enough to operate a ski resort. At Hopi around 6,000 feet we usually just get dustings that melt within a day or two at the most. But in December we got a few snowfalls that accumulated and stayed and it was beautiful.
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| My neighborhood of adobe homes after a winter snowstorm |
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| Hiking through the desert snow |
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| Sunset colors peak and sparkle on the snow |
And then January came, a new year with new beginnings, and a new outdoor destination. Wade and I venture often to the Grand Canyon as it is close enough to be our 'backyard park' and offers a lifetime of new places to explore. When we had a little longer stretch of time off together in January, we decided to take the plunge and do something different and instead ventured to a National Park in our neighboring state of California -- Death Valley. I imagined Death Valley as an big, flat, hot desert -- but discovered that couldn't be farther from the truth. It does indeed have valleys below sea level which are exceedingly hot in the summertime, but these same valleys are actually quite cool in the winter. It is also the largest National Park in the lower 48 states and includes multiple mountain ranges with some mountains over 10,000 feet tall, dozens of canyons, Joshua tree forests, and moving rocks! We spent a week there and saw all of these and more in a tiny fraction of the park.
We spent most of our trip in the vicinity of Racetrack Valley, an expansive mudflat with a few rocks scattered on its surface, some of which have tracks stretching into the distance, a record of their movement across the mudflat over time. For a longtime the mechanism of their movement was a mystery -- wind? water? aliens? The, in the winter of 2013-2014, scientists set up an experiment and observed how rocks move rocks move when sheets of ice form over a shallow water pond and are blown by the wind and push the rocks and the
mystery was solved.
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| an example of a few of the rocks with their tracks extending hundreds of feet towards the horizon |
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| The view from a saddle on our approach to Racetrack Valley on our backpacking trip |
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| fun with shadow pictures in Racetrack Valley |
The other highlight of the trip was soaking in the natural Saline Valley hot springs. It is a true desert oasis with palm trees, outdoor showers, and many soaking tubs with views of the surrounding mountains during the day and stars at night. The place is truly remote, gorgeous, free, and exquisitely maintained by the communal efforts of volunteers. We made our way there at the beginning of our trip, and had to make time to go back again after our backpacking trip before leaving the park.
And lastly, both Wade and I got to see Joshua trees for the first time. The Joshua tree forests appear almost like something from a Dr. Seuss book, they are so different from other trees and each one is so unique in shape.
January and since come and gone, and now February is here, bringing me to Phoenix for an acupuncture training, another new beginning for me for this year. I've always been interested in traditional medicine modalities of all sorts, and this form of Traditional Chinese Medicine has started to get more mainstream recognition, especially in its role for pain treatment in the era of realization of the risks and harms of opioids for chronic pain. I'm now midway through a 6-month course for medical providers to learn acupuncture therapy and it has been quite thought-provoking for me around concepts of health, medicine, healing, evidence, and patient-provider relationships. More on that to come...
