What we discovered was a ghost town whose residents probably vanished with the futile quest for gold. Boarded up buildings and abandoned railroad equipment served as eery testaments to a time that came and went. I later learned from a local bartender that people still pan for gold in this canyon. While most people left town and moved on, some continue to chase the dreams of the pioneers.

A boarded up, abandoned home scares away curious visitors with broken glass, trash, and a dilapidated draw bridge.

For dinner, we headed to Nederland about five miles away which represents an altogether different era. Art galleries, funky boutiques, rock shops, a cannabis club, and a co-op grocery store line the streets, making up a liberal enclave Kevin thinks sprouted during the sixties. The town boasts some interesting history like being the recording destination for the likes of The String Cheese Incident and hosting a spring festival “Frozen Dead Guy Days” that celebrates a cryogenically frozen Norwegian man “Grandpa Bredo” who’s been sheltered in a shed in the hills for decades.

After a satisfying Indian dinner and a perfect cup of milk chai at Kathmandu Restaurant, we hunkered down in the lakefront cabin until dawn.

After exploring the train tracks and Rollinsville, we enjoyed a satisfying Indian meal at Kathmandu Restaurant in Nederland.

We arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park just after sunrise when the valleys were still resting beneath the shade of mountain peaks and the meadows sparkled with frost. Low hanging clouds seeped over the Continental Divide as marmot waddled across the roads and moose made their way through swampy fields.

Our early start allowed us to drive clear across Colorado to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area on the Utah-Wyoming border, where we camped right near the rim of a beautiful red rock canyon that outlines a large reservoir. The site is near Dinosaur National Monument and has its own share of dinosaur and marine fossils. The scenery was incredible yet there wasn’t another camper in sight. Two rangers at the visitor center told us that most people from Utah don’t even know the place exists. Kevin and I only learned about it after spotting the large body of water on a map the day before and then looking it up on his iPhone and finding some enticing pictures. While I’m usually against depending on technology while traveling, I must admit that access to sites like Yelp have helped us add spontaneity to our travels; we can learn about places on the go and divert our path at any time.

We jumped on the chance to say hello to Utah again before a long journey north.

There's nothing like a sun lit gorge after a long day in the car. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Utah. Photo: Kevin Schnepel

“Western Wandering” is an ongoing travel series by Serena Renner on MeridianCollective.org that will feature photos, text and video from her Western U.S. road trip in August and September of 2010. See her first installment Utah’s Color Country here.

It pays to seek out the interesting folks you can find on the road. Pulling into the small town of Whitehall, Montana, I spied a bicycle weighed down with cross-country packs, resting outside the town’s cafe. Liz and I decided to stop for lunch and ordered a couple burgers from a harried waitress while absorbing the stares of tables full of locals. We found our seats, and I panned the room for the owner of the bike.

I found a tanned woman with gray hair, wearing spandex. I walked over and asked if she’d like to sit with us, and she courteously accepted. Through our conversation I found out she was on the tail end of a solo trip from Virginia to Idaho. Her name was Jan, and she had more adventure stories than would fit into one lunch. For one, if I remember right, she had ridden a train through Mongolia while pregnant. After finishing her burger and tall chocolate milkshake she gave me her card, which had a link to her blog.

Before she left, Jan also mentioned visiting nearby Lewis and Clark Caverns, which we had completely overlooked while planning our trip. The state park was only a few miles away. It was lucky that we ran into Jan, because otherwise we wouldn’t have backtracked and spent the afternoon crawling through stalagmites hundreds of feet under Montana.

Touring the West – Lewis and Clark Caverns – Images by Will Parson

Tecate Bukkake from Goddamn Cobras Collective on Vimeo.

My other collective, The Goddamn Cobras, are releasing new material left and right (and check out that beaut of a site!). I didn’t do much on this video, besides come up with the idea and take photos. The filming and editing were completely out of my hands but I still fancy the video and my description of it on Freewilliamsburg: “A gender studies graduate student could definitely write a dissertation about the possibility of feminine empowerment via a typically male dominated substance as demonstrated in this video.” Village Voice liked my description too!

We ended up submitting it to the Vimeo Awards in their captured division and find out sometime next month if getting tecate bukkaked gets you awards as well as notoriety.

Don’t go to Yellowstone. At least, don’t go in July. This year the park set a new July record for visitors with close to a million. I think any more weight from so many tourists might force the Yellowstone caldera down into the magma that powers all those geysers. In any case they’re already getting into all sorts of accidents.

Those million visitors drove over 320,000 cars through Yellowstone’s five entrances. The next time I visit, I think I will go in Spring when much of the park is open to bicycles but not cars.

Touring the West – Yellowstone National Park – Images by Will Parson

Honey Pie from California is a place. on Vimeo.

I know my fair share about Real Dolls, having once written an article about sex dolls. I put it on my website, thinking it would make a fine portfolio piece. That I could send a link to editors, who might like it and lavish me with assignments.

I am not sure editors are the ones seeing it.

Now 6 of the top ten search terms that bring people to my site are related to sex dolls. It appears these searchers are doing some comparative researching before making the plunge into a 6k+ investment. I hope they find my article informative in their decision making. I also hope some of them might be editors who can appreciate some good writing when they see it.

Highway 24 in Utah on the way to Capitol Reef National Park. Photos by Will Parson.

Between Cedar Breaks and Capitol Reef National Park stretches the red open road of Utah. My girlfriend Liz and I skipped famously scenic Highway 12, which Serena ended up taking on her own way through Utah. Instead we took the somewhat scenic Highway 24 instead.

Capitol Reef is like a mini Zion. Not as tall, not as wide, but also fewer people to muck up the scenery. Though, we still caught a boy vandalizing a rock while his family admired the sunset at aptly-named Sunset Point.

Several of the original buildings of the Mormon settlement town of Fruita are preserved, as are the orchards of apricot and pear trees. Visitors are free to pick their own fruit, and during my stay I harvested some of the tastiest apricots I’ve ever had.

Capitol Reef National Park is home to the former Mormon settlement town of Fruita, Utah.

Enjoy these photos of Capitol Reef while I prepare to serve up some photos from Yellowstone National Park, coming at you soon enough.

Touring the West – Capitol Reef National Park – Images by Will Parson

“Touring the West” is an ongoing travel series by Will Parson on MeridianCollective.org that will feature photos, text and video from his three weeks on the road in July. Find previous installments below.

• Part one – San Diego to Zion National Park
• Part two – Zion National Park
• Part three – Angel’s Landing
• Part four – Cedar Breaks National Monument

Judy Schaim, co-chair of San Diego Pride, shared her perspective on the Proposition 8 debacle with writer David Harvey. File photo by Will Parson

On Wednesday, August 4, I got a call from Todd Gloria, San Diego District 3 Councilmember, around 1:30 in the afternoon. Judge Vaughn Walker had just overturned Proposition 8—California’s ban on same-sex marriage—and I had missed it.

“Do you want me to call you back in a few minutes? Maybe you need some time to digest this,” he said, laughing.

I muttered something about expecting the results and asked him if he was surprised by the verdict. I asked him what he expected next and about the rulings significance and then I realized I was writing the same story as a thousand other reporters.

I recalled a recent blog from Columbia Journalism Review on localizing a story, and I wished I had been prepared.

In the end, I found a stock question, “What should San Diegans do while awaiting an appeal?” and I ran with it. I asked 14 or 15 community leaders that question, and I used it to shape my story.

But it also forced me to leave out some really great details that didn’t fit my theme.

So while I was doing my best to localize a story, to make it relevant to my readers and to come up with a message, I also found that I was losing some of the best parts.

Too often I find that no matter how I try to shape a story, or what I want to include, it forms organically and something good gets lost in the mix.

Judi Schaim, co-chair of San Diego Pride told me that she didn’t get married the first time around, because she didn’t want her marriage to be taken away over politics.

She also told me this: “I’m 66 years old and in my lifetime I never thought I would see that same sex couples could marry so for me to see a flashback of history and to realize this is actually happening, it’s unbelievable, it’s awesome, it’s a dream come true. And it means that maybe I’ll be able to marry.”

She didn’t make the final cut.

And neither did Rev. Canon Albert Ogle of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Equality California—whom I didn’t ask my topical question. He spoke at the Day of Decision Rally in the LGBT Center in Hillcrest, and my very brief interview with him afterward was interesting enough—and not for his charmingly subtle Irish accent and clerical collar—that I wrote this post on Meridian so I could share it:

*****

David Harvey: You discussed winning over the religious community, families and others that supported proposition 8 with this decision and by moving forward, can you speak a little more to that?

Albert Ogle: “I think the coming out process is a conversion process, we’re first of all converted, but we’re gay and we have to deal with that, then our families are converted, they often don’t get there in a weekend but it takes time.”

In many ways I look at my experience as being, you bring about societal transformation and institutional transformation by doing those kind of one on ones, then all the sudden there’s a tipping point.”

I think we [the gay community] actually have much more in common with the religious right for making marriages work and showing that we are not actually a threat to marriage.”

I’ve had a couple of debates with the yes on 8 people and in some ways we use the same marriage preparation work and they were kind of surprised that we were doing 40 hours of premarital counseling with couples. We’re not a threat to marriage and if we start engaging in those sort of conversations we move forward.”

DH: When Prop 8 was being debated, in some cases it drew people away from the religious community. Do you think the overturning of Prop 8 can help rebridge that divide?

AO: “I think the judges decision is going to be helpful to some people who may be in the middle, because what he’s done is really looked at the facts. And we’re now separating what people hold as their beliefs. There are some people that believe the earth was created in 5 days and it’s 6,000 years old and most of us when we look at science we don’t believe that and they’re entitled to their beliefs, but are we enforcing that onto all our school to teach that, no. The same thing applies, people are entitled to their religious beliefs, but they have no right to impose them or make them the law of the land.”

The decision was also a victory for democracy over theocracy and this country has teetered on that—especially during the Bush years—where the separation of church and state is not clear. Here in California you have religious people who were forcing their views on everybody and Judge Vaughn Walker’s position was clear that as a democracy we can’t do that.”

Globally, we’re dealing with fundamentalism, we’re dealing with it in Christianity, were dealing with it in Islam, and in Judaism and one manifestation of that was the work we had to do to fight Prop 8.”

I’m going to Uganda later this year, and talk about a number the Christian right has done on a country, where they’re going to send gays to jail for life and possibly put them to death. The same people who are creating prop 8 are creating the laws in Uganda. I see this not only as a local concern, but this is happening all over the world and we have to fight it.”

DH: What do you think is the best weapon in that fight?

AO: Education.

People need to learn that there are different ways of interpreting. Some of us have a very different view of what we call the difficult texts. There are texts in the bible that condone violence and slavery, the oppression of women as well as the oppression of gays. As religious leaders we have to talk about those and explain these things. In Africa, for example, the seminaries do not teach human sexuality so they’ve never heard of Alfred Kinsey, they’ve never heard of Stonewall. They have no idea what we’re talking about when we talk about gay stuff. So if the religious right is going in with lies and misinformation, there is nothing to counter it with.”

There’s a lot of work to do still.”

******

You can read the Canon’s Day of Decision speech online, for more great wisdom on the balance of faith and equality, as well as his figures that help to dispel the myth that the courts are acting out of tune with public opinion.

Read the Judge’s decision, along with his decision not to stay the original repeal of Prop 8 past Aug 18th, here.

And of course, my article is available in an updated print version online.

It looks like Will and I had similar ambitions for the summer: to breathe some fresh air, rediscover open space, and set out on a wind-blowing-through-our-hair car adventure to explore our own Western United States. My summer began with a mini road trip from Santa Barbara to Denver and will resume next week with an excursion through Yellowstone, Glacier and Banff National Parks before touring the Pacific Northwest.

My boyfriend, Kevin, and I did a quick road trip from Denver to Oakland a few months back and decided to take a different route this time through Utah’s color country. Like Will, we had our eyes set on Zion National Park and Hwy 12, which runs through Bryce Canyon National Park and The Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument–1.7 million acres of multicolored cliffs, buttes, and canyons shaped by eons of sedimentation, uplift and erosion. In attempt to see the national parks before they’re overrun with mostly foreign tourists, Kevin and I got up before sunrise every morning and visited either very early or later in the evening when they are most pristine. About an hour outside of Zion, we camped for free at the Kolob Reservoir right near the water’s edge, and on our second night, we stayed at Kodochrome Basin State Park near Tropic, which greeted us with an incredible sunset featuring unique pinnacles that rose abruptly out of the earth. On our way back to the I-70 on day 3, we did a quick drive through Capital Reef National Park (most of which was closed on our visit) and a detour to Goblin Valley State Park off Hwy 24.

I was most inspired by the region’s amazing color contrasts. Red-and-white-striped canyons stood out against the vibrant green vegetation that grew in their folds. Charcoal roads cut through butter yellow meadows and each sunrise and sunset outdid the last. Here is a glimpse of what I saw.

“Western Wandering” is an ongoing travel series by Serena Renner on MeridianCollective.org that will feature photos, text and video from her Western U.S. road trip in August and September, 2010.

Later this month I will be working on a set that wants to use Lightroom 3 and the tethering capabilities, so I thought it would be a good idea to test it out at home.

I can’t believe I had this puppy for a month and haven’t used it. It was a little slow, evening shooting small jpegs, but the lag wasn’t insurmountable. Also, I am not one for presets but it was quite fun seeing in real time the 100+ presets I’ve downloaded.

When it’s 100 degrees in most of Utah you might do well to make the steep drive to Cedar Breaks National Monument just for the cool mountain air. The heat at Zion National Park in the middle of July makes it worth struggling up a windy road through Dixie National Forest to reach Cedar Breaks at an elevation of 10,000 feet. I welcomed the change in scenery — Cedar Breaks was crisp and more peaceful than heavily-populated Zion.

There were only a couple cars in the parking lot the morning we left Zion and reached Cedar Breaks. Liz and I were passing by on the way from Zion to Capitol Reef, but were enticed to join a wildflower tour guided by a young National Park Service ranger named Russ. Russ admitted he wasn’t an expert on flowers, but we were more than happy with his extensive knowledge of the area’s natural history.

Cedar Breaks is an interesting sight (just look it through the Google satellite). The 1500-year-old Bristlecone Pine trees tumble into the slowly eroding limestone breaks at a pace measured in centuries. These Bristlecones are just middle-aged compared to the 4,000-year-old specimens in California’s White Mountains, but at least anyone can approach the trees at Cedar Breaks and feel their stubby needles.

A Bristlecone Pine attracts a butterfly at Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah.

Passing the Bristlecones prompted a discussion with Ranger Russ about ancient trees. Though individual Bristlecones can live to 5,000 years, clonal species like Aspen and Spruce can live much longer. Cedar Breaks is home to Quaking Aspen, which is the same species as a grove in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest that is at least 80,000 years old. Actually, that Aspen grove, known as Pando, may be as much as a million years old. And, at 6,615 pounds, Pando is the largest living organism on the planet.

If you’re into old trees and photography you’ll love The Oldest Living Things in the World project by artist/photographer Rachel Sussman. She goes around the world with biologists and documents organisms of all kinds that are at least 2,000 years old. I tried to find footage of Sussman’s recent TED talk (coincidentally held the same week I visited Cedar Breaks). Here is her website.

“Touring the West” is an ongoing travel series by Will Parson on MeridianCollective.org that will feature photos, text and video from his three weeks on the road in July. Find previous installments below.

• Part one
• Part two
• Part three