Western Recreation Photos – Week 01: Words and photos by Yonder Journal
THIS IS A SURVEY OF RECREATION IN THE AMERICAN WEST. The primary purpose of this project is to explore, document, and publish a permanent, voluminous, wide-sweeping, and studied record of the State of Recreation in the summer of 2014.
Observations:
1. Slickrock Moab, UT 9:16 AM: Emiliano and Daniel on the set of Chronicles of Gnarnia Vol. III: Slickrock Shinola Showdown. Side note: Wearing gold Mardi Gold beads from the Backstreet Museum in Treme, New Orleans while riding a bike with a bell mounted to the handlebars, on singletrack, uphill, in Moab UT, may produce a ringing noise from time to time, especially on the steeper sections.
2. Bonneville Salt Flats, UT 10:32 AM: Salt Flats-functional headwear evaluation is assessed by sizing increments measured in feet rather than inches.
3. Bonneville Salt Flats, UT 10:45 AM: Due to the Salt Flats’ granular top-soil consistency, 4-wheel drive becomes necessary to maintain traction when reaching speeds above 350 miles per hour (hard science has yet to determine the precise speed at which the traction gains becomes negligible).
4. Boise Cascade Lake, ID 10:45 AM: It could be easily argued that the best observational standpoint for your toddler is not in the direct path of an American flag Speedo’ed rope swinging dynamo—i.e. when DJ Jazzy is going for the overall rope swing distance record, don’t stand in the way.
5. Jordan Valley, OR 7:35 PM: Certain research may show that the town of Jordan Valley is a hotbed for Basque freedom fighters seeking refuge far from the reach of Spanish authorities.
6. Mono Lake, CA 5:37 PM: We can only imagine that these French youngsters are as interested as we are in the Mono Lake salt dumps, more formally called Tufa Towers. (They’re actually calcium carbonate/limestone.)
7. Mammoth Mt., CA 6:17 PM: Fulfilled a life long dream of riding the Mammoth Mt. Kamikaze on a basket equipped town bike wearing a Smokey The Bear ranger hat.
8. Hot Creek, CA 10:27 AM: Due to the low temperatures of upper hot creek certain members of our party resort to the time-honored “Hobo Slap” technique to cleanse both body and soul.
9. Rock Creek Lake, CA 12:06 PM: We begin our investigation into the picnic table archetype.
10. Tioga Pass Ranger Station, CA 8:08 PM: We engage in a friendly argument with a Yosemite Park Ranger over the definition of legitimate versus illegitimate. Our argument was legitimate.
11. Tenaya Lake, CA 11:53 AM: On a warm day Tenaya Lake is a melting pot of multi-cultural outdoor enthusiasm.
12. Yosemite Valley, CA 1:34 PM: “The body needs what the body needs and the body wants what the body wants.”
13. Shores of Lake Tahoe, CA 3:15 PM: Quote of the day runner up #2: “Wearing a t-shirt is like putting a holiday sweater on a German Shepherd.”—Emiliano Granado
14. Shores of Lake Tahoe, CA 3:57 PM: Tahoe Treats Park Ranger and cashier Lisa once again proves that National Forest employees are a great mix of testy, feisty, and fun. She threw a shaved ice snowball at Daniel, made heavily syruped Sno-Cones, and explained how in life she would like nothing more than to put things that disappoint her, like ex-boyfriends and dinners that didn’t turn out, into a catapult and launch it somewhere, anywhere.
15. California State Fair, CA 2:53 PM: If you were to bottle the smell of the CSF to sell to men and women hoping to capture that “fresh from the fair” scent the home perfumer could recreate an approximate facsimile by mixing equal parts vomit and corndog. #itsthebest
16. CSF, CA 3:34 PM: Top ranked ride name: “Rockin Tug” #itsthebest
To see these briefs and more, head over to Yonder Journal.
____
Follow Yonder on Instagram and special thanks to Poler and Yakima.
