Terry and I spent last Wednesday and Thursday traveling
from Aurora, Colorado to Laughlin, Nevada.
We traveled across some of the emptiest
and most beautiful regions of the United States,
including one stretch of I-70 that passes through 106 miles
of nothing, just a wild, natural world.
Some people find these western landscapes desolate and intimidating,
with their rocks, deserts, mesas, dry rivers, canyons, and big skies.
But this striking wilderness makes my heart sing!
It speaks to me unlike any other.
Near Parachute, Colorado, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Arapaho National Forest
Near Frisco, Colorado, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
For me, it is impossible not to think about the grand expanse of geological time
and about how land shapes people around the world.
Today, with over half of humanity living in urban areas,
I think we are at risk of losing our connection to land and to nature,
especially when we continually change the land
and try to bend the natural world to our will.
White River National Forest,
Near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
New Overpass Under Construction,
Near Henderson, Nevada, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
For many of the years I taught, my students would study the land
different groups of Native Americans lived on and how its natural resources
provided people with the water, food, shelter, and clothing they needed to survive.
On the surface it seems a simple enough concept, but it is really profound.
If you look at people throughout time and the different environments in which they lived,
it is fascinating to consider how much of their beliefs, culture, arts,
ways of thinking and behavior is derived from their lands.
As I travel through wild areas, I think about how people learned to survive in them,
and how important it is to preserve them for future generations.
Mesa Verde Sandstone and Mancos Shale Palisades,
Near Palisade, Colorado, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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The High Desert in Bloom
Near Laughlin, Nevada, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Atop San Rafael Swell,
Near Green River, Utah, USA
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
There are still people today for whom their land is home
in ways those of us in urban areas can only begin to grasp.
I feel a deep connection to the magnificent land I traveled across
in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada (plus a tiny piece of Arizona),
but I will never understand it or connect to it the way people for whom it is home do.
When I lived in Lansdowne House in Northern Ontario as a young girl,
I didn't realize that the Ojibwa didn't think
of the wilderness surrounding them as wilderness.
of the wilderness surrounding them as wilderness.
They thought of it as home.
When I came to that realization later, it was surprising,
first because the wild and remote land around Lansdowne House
had seemed harsh and dangerous to me,
and second because once I understood it was home to the Ojibwa,
I couldn't imagine why I had thought otherwise.
Meeting a Summer Plane at the Hudson's Bay Dock
Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada
Photo (Transparency) by John Macfie
Reference Code: C 330-14-0-0-95
Archives of Ontario, I0012712
are currently engaged in a struggle to control
how mining development occurs on their land.
The land the Ojibwa love is could not be more different from the land that speaks to me,
one of the world's largest intact wetlands versus the southwestern desert.
In 2012 the Neskantaga Ojibwa released a documentary
We Love Our Land co-produced with PraxisPictures.
The documentary shows the stunning beauty of the Ojibwa land,
explains what it means to them,
and outlines the issues facing them
with the discovery of the Ring of Fire chromium deposits.
I invite you to take a look at one of the most remote
and least visited regions of Canada
to get a sense of what it is like
and the remarkable people who live there.
It is 12:25 minutes long,
so I am also posting a shorter version
that is 3:24 minutes long for your convenience.
We Love Our Land
We Love Our Land
Here are a few more photos from Terry's and my trip
across the southwestern wilderness of the United States.
These are from the Virgin River Gorge, one of my most favorite places.
The I-15 highway through the Virgin River Gorge is a marvel of engineering
and remains one of the most expensive portions of the interstate system ever built.
This portion of the Virgin River, some 24 miles long,
drops down from the Colorado Plateau to the Mojave Desert.
The Virgin River Gorge as seen from 20,000 feet.
Interstate 15 crosses the river in this photo.
The interstate highway passes through the Beaver Dam and Virgin Mountains,
a landscape of eroded, stepped cliffs and sandstone terraces.
Near the Beginning of the Virgin River Gorge
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
In the Middle of the Gorge
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
The Virgin River carved this long canyon and the beautiful canyon of Zion Nation Park.
I have driven through this canyon many times, and never tire of its magnificent rocks.
Along the Virgin River in the Gorge
Photo by M. Louise Barbour
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Till next time ~
Fundy Blue
Crossing Petite Passage
Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia
Photo Copy by Roy MacBeath
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Personal Note:
My apology for missing another Northern Post last Friday. Apple solved my computer issues, but then I ran into frustrating connectivity issues. I hope I'm finally back on track.
For Map Lovers Like Me:
Location of Lansdowne House
Known Today as Neskantaga
Location of Lansdowne House