Rolling Western America Nature Now

I wanted a catch-all thread for western americas armchair nature stuff.

Everywhere is like this now

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/348844010_9781256021899505_1272976166590459126_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=d3HhcNw9adUAX9JZQ1A&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.xx&oh=00_AfB5h9J9izPqzTPonX1bb9EinaJfHAFR3nY5OFSIR9-50Q&oe=64719A69

Wouldn't want to be there in a million years. But recognize that my experience of nature is social and mediated. I don't have anything interesting to say about it. Personally I still look for and appreciate otherness on the earth. Hopefully there will be stuff in that vein to share, instead of just a million variations of 'people sure are obsessed with Horseshoe Bend." Sorry if none of this makes any sense.

Map, have you read any Everett Ruess? Well, there's not much formal 'writing' but his diaries are pretty compelling

https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PHM1021HI02.jpg

oh i'm aware of ruess and i've been meaning to get around to the diaries. i have an issue with a lot of western naturalist writing where i'm prickly about prose style but i may be entering the phase in my life where i'm starting to let that slide. cf wallace stegner who i'll probably try again this year.

ruess though, i admire the woodblock prints i've seen of his

anyway thanks for dropping in andy the grasshopper

Ruess is not so much a nature writer as he's just chronicling his wanderings and adventures, a young man's thoughts.
I've read a fair amount of Stegner, he's a proper 'writer' which Ruess had not yet become when he disappeared

i used to be such a bitch about celebrated nature writing but now i embrace it all, even ed abbey.

anyway i'm bumping this because i wanted to shit-talk new mexico. i'm sorry but every western landscape i've seen in new mexico pales in comparison to what utah, arizona and colorado have to offer. ghost ranch looks like a million drive-thru landscapes in utah. new mexico mountains are ... underwhelming. to colorado's mountains it's understandable that they are underwhelming but i think they rank below utah's and arizona's mountains too. every time i see new mexico landscapes described with amazement i am saying in the back of my head "that's no kodachrome basin state park" or what have you. i suspect the spanish history and the art connections elevate it in everyone's minds.