The Wild Silence Travel Log
In the summer of 2019, I embarked on a solo road trip in the West. From the high-Rockies of Colorado, through the desert of Utah, across Nevada, and deep into the Sierra Nevada Mountains through Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Park. During this trip, I was off the grid. Normally unable to get a wifi signal even if I wanted one (I didn’t really want one to be honest). However, as every good solo hiker should do, I found a wifi signal once a day (usually at a ranger’s station) and did two things: I told a couple of people who knew my route that I was doing fine and I would upload one short meditation and a few images from my day to social media. The response to these brief thoughts and photos was amazing—comments, private messages, emails, stories offered in reciprocity—it spurred a wave of enthusiasm around the National Parks and my current practice of sitting with the “Wild Silence” (as I call it) in order to find solace from life’s blows. I hadn’t intended to keep the travel log going after the 14-day trip; however, the response to the posts and the lift in my own spirits as a result of keeping the log, made me keep the diary going. Thus was born the Wild Silence Travel Log.
Your’s From the Trail
–Leslie
Continue Reading the Latest Entries on Social Media
Day 4. Part 2. Bryce
Location: Bryce National Park, Utah
Day 4. Part 2. Dixie National Forest, Red Canyon, and Bryce Canyon National Park. I have been a perpetual wayfarer for years now and been to many places that impacted me. All of them pale in comparison to the resonant magic I found in the deep-cut trails of Bryce Canyon National Park. It arrived at sunset—spent from an early morning and full day—but I hiked miles into the canyon . . . I couldn’t stop; around every turn in the path was another moment of awe.
Day 4: Canyon Lands
Location: Moab & Canyon Lands National Park, Utah
Day 4. Part 1: Dead Horse Point State Park >> Canyonlands National Park. After Arches that reach to the sky, the counterbalance of valleys cut deep into the earth is striking. There was something about the gnarled beauty of the juniper trees that drew me in . . . the weathered, parched persistence of them.
Day 3. Part 2 Arches National Park
Location: Arches National Park, Utah
Day 3: Arches National Park. It was 108 degrees in the park today. I decided to go hike in a few miles to some of the more popular arches. Normally a doable distance but the altitude coupled with the heat kicked me in the rear. Still . . . It was worth it all to see these lands of red rock.
Day 3: Departing the Rockies
Location: Wolcott, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Day 3: Early start. Heading West 300 miles as the land of white mountains gives way to red mesa.
Day 2: Rockies at 12, 100ft
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Hiked Glacier Gorge, Bear Lake, Glacier Creek, and then proceeded up to 12,100ft in the high Rockies.
Made a new friends in the local chipmunk population . . . alas, no food to give them. Only companionship.
Now: Basecamp for the night.
. . . 40 years a therapy in one day.
Day 1: At Home in the Mountains
Location: Estes Park, CO
Landed in Colorado, rent a car and wound my way up through Boulder to Estes Park—the gateway for Rocky Mountain National Park. Tomorrow I sent off into the mountains.
the mountains are calling…
