All that wide blue sky (Kanab and Paria)

"But for me, oh it was the acting" (31s)
Only not in this case.

We saw the new Magnificent Seven a few weeks ago. (That was my allowance of murders for the month, can't watch any more for a while.) The story was interesting enough - it's a remake, and one of the classic plots, so no real surprises. The film likewise, especially in its context as one of a series (Seven Samurai, the original Magnificent Seven, and even The Avengers is not stretching the point too far.) The costuming was not bad, though the female pseudo-protagonist showed way too much bosom for a respectable woman of the period who wasn't at an evening party. (And not enough actual, y'know, character development. Ugh! Say it with me, boobs are not characters ... unless you're a comic strip.) Several of the characters were very striking - such a villain! - but for me, oh it was the scenery.

Image by Geraint Smith via jerrygarrett.wordpress.com

'Bonanza' set near Kanab, UT
On private property and unmaintained,
it is slowly succumbing to weather

I am enchanted with the cliffs and mesas of the region they call 'Indian Country' (which is gah, idk, hopeless understatement, much of the continent was Indian Country. However.) The ground in such shades of orange and brown among the green, it is no wonder the sky looks so blue. M7 was shot in New Mexico (and Louisiana, but that can't possibly be the landscape shots) but it could just as well take its place with dozens of earlier westerns filmed at Paria, Utah, or other locations not far from Kanab.

It is hard to convey in words how satisfying to the eye is the sweep of a long sagebrush flat, or a mesa rippling with golden-headed grasses, with the unpredictable shapes of the hills rising beside - the weird angles where different layers have been pushed, pulled, folded, or have eroded at different rates, the effect of patient wind and furious water, or long-dead volcanic eruption. In this case, too rivers and streams - though in our further west country, it is much drier.

from a prominence above old Paria town, GSENM, UT

Abruptly I want to learn how to ride a horse. (Up til now been afraid of horses for decades.) And oh, so looking forward to our trip to New Mexico later in the year.

Two loops and a spring: the goodness of side roads

Panaca Spring

Lazy Sunday morning in camp, reading and sleeping, maybe somewhat in denial over having to go home. My reluctance to leave only increased as the campground steadily emptied out around us. It would clearly be almost deserted by night ... and a quiet campground is pretty much my favourite kind. But we had clichés to insert and eventually we packed up and shipped out.

Go straight home though? Yeah nah. Side roads for the win.

Springs and the Calligraphy Highway pt 3: Meadow Mountains

This post might have triggering content

After a gentle walk along the river an reservoir at Pine Valley, we packed up. We were invited to stay another night, but Monday will come, alas, and with it bring work.

We drove back out and turned north. A few miles from Central is the site of a notorious, inexplicable mass murder: the Mountain Meadows massacre. There are four separate sites; a men's memorial and a women's memorial, a gravesite with cairn, and an overlook of the cairn and the valley where the tragedy took place in autumn 1857.

No one really knows why the massacre happened. The Fancher pioneer party, who had camped near a spring to let their beasts forage, were besieged, during which several men died. Then, under a white flag, over a hundred men, women and children were murdered. Only the toddlers were spared - those thought too young to talk. Apparently at least one baby died from the same bullet that killed its father. There is a report that some of the girls were raped before they were murdered.

There's no doubt that the mass murder was carried out by local Mormons and Indians working in concert. One local Mormon leader ended up taking the fall for it. John D. Lee went on the run (back when that was totally a thing in the wild west) and operated Lee's Ferry above the north-eastern end of the Grand Canyon for several years before he was indicted and executed. (Before there was a bridge at Navajo Crossing, the ferry service a few miles upstream was the last even remotely predictable crossing of the Colorado for a few hundred miles. The area was extremely remote - it's still fairly remote! - and they didn't arrest him until 1874.)

But really, John Lee can't actually have been the only one who was responsible - why was he made the scapegoat? Why was this thing done in the first place? How can it ever have seemed like a good idea to anyone? There were plenty of inflammatory factors, but how the transition was made from outrage over trespassing, even allegations of well-poisoning, etc to planned mass murder including children, is beyond me - maybe always will be beyond me. There are some failures of imagination that I can't feel are failures of character.

The overlook is peaceful enough, and so is the valley's gently rolling, tree-dotted, fenced pastureland. The landmark site is well cared for and has been brought into being by the descendants of the murderers and the victims. It is a good place for quiet reflection. As we read the names of the dead, my sight blurred. Sometimes, we humans are a strange and terrible species, and sometimes it is a strange and terrible world we make.