It feels as if nothing has changed for centuries except for the trash, which looks fairly new.  We have found remnants of wildlife, but none living. The animals have forsaken this plateau. Nothing has changed, and how could it?  This landscape looks too vast for the hands of man to reform it.

However, gradually we have begun.  I can picture a time when nothing could be heard here except the swallows, the wind and your own breath.  A plane flies overhead, and all of these sounds are overpowered.  Like the flute in a marching band – their voices lost.  When we experience chaotic noises, our own voices get lost in the mix.  Our society has grown too loud, and is becoming discomforted by silence.

People have become so alienated from true silence that when in company of others, we feel a constant need to converse.  With silence, for many people, comes anxiety.  How do we reverse this trend on a societal scale?  Individual meditation and journeys into nature can solve the problem, but only for those who are self-motivated and aware of the loudness.

The silence on top of the mesa is like an exquisite piece of glass.  It is shattered routinely by the cries of birds, the whispering wind and the occasional car traveling down the highway.  There is an odd combination of sights up here.  On one hand it feels very remote and wild.  Basalt rocks, small desert shrubs and patches of lichen that almost astonish a person with their loud and noticeable colors cover the plateau.   The only signs of life are a few small rodent droppings and sounds of birds.  I feel insignificant and small standing on the edge, with a sense of uneasiness that comes with the fact that life is impermanent, it could all be over with one false step.

On the other hand if I look west and listen carefully I am reminded of societies great reach.  I can perceive telephone and electrical poles stretching as far as the eye can see.  I can hear the cars roaring down the highway, a never-ending black snake slithering through the hills.  Even in the midst of all the majestic beauty that one can see from the top of La Mesa our civilization stubbornly refuses to be ignored.

Sunrise view of La Mesa

Carrot Spoons – Base Camp – Dry Falls Lake – Red Alkaline Lake

On the way back, we explored a huge channel, which turned out not to be a shortcut. It was great anyway!

Carrot spoons, in search of a shortcut, explore a giant channel.

Their track is meandering, and appears to fall off the edge of the mesa.

Image shows the elevation of our path.

We also stopped to admire the watering hole, a.k.a. the cattle cooler.

All of the Carrot Spoons made it safely to base camp that evening.