Cedar Mesa

There's nothing like a bit of good nature writing to cheer you up when you are down. I'm sure that everyone on the world now knows, rafting on the Animas river was illeg
al for ten days due to a EPA induced spill from an abandoned mine up Cement Creek. The river turned orange and I became a melancholy outlaw, but I gained quite a bit of time to read. So I read a piece of nature writing that is about an area that is not to far from Durango, though it is a place that I have never been: Cedar Mesa.

Cedar Mesa, by David Petersen, describes parts of Cedar Mesa and Comb Wash, the geology, ecology, and some of the history of the area (there were ancestral-Puebloans in the area from approximately 1-1400 AD, after which they disappeared from the area for largely unknown reasons). Petersen also tells us some tales of his experiences in Cedar Mesa, from close encounters with a Puma, to a long hike up Owl Creek with a friend. I like his stories, they're funny and thoughtful.

He also talks about Natural Bridges National Monument, and the way that tourists are often permanently attached to their cars in the southwest. This is something that both worries me, but makes me happy. If they are attached to their cars, it keeps the back country trails uncrowded, and keeps the wilderness much more wild. I'm worried, however, that every year the roads will push farther into the back country in an effort to bring new things to the table. I hope that this doesn't ever happen. I believe that you have to work a little, walk a little, for the rewards of the wilderness.

I liked this book. The prose was beautiful, his stories poetic. There were a few points in the book where you could tell that Petersen was trying to emulate the writing style of Ed Abbey, to which I say: Don't. He did it best and no one will ever be able to write the way that he did ever again. It was a very educational read. I learned a few things about the desert, and I spend quite a bit of time there. All in all, a very enjoyable book.