Tecopa Hot Springs Poetry + Prose+ Hike!

First, there was hiking on Sunday morning....


Ruth in a dry part of Amargosa River Canyon

With amazing, unexpected scenery and views - greenery in the desert near Death Valley. I had the pleasure of going on my friend Brian Brown's guided tour of the Amargosa River, recently designated by Congress as a wild, scenic and recreational river.


young hiker in a cosmic spot

The six miles we hiked downriver, starting at the tiny Tecopa Post Office, is an amazing, canyon and water filled gorge that is reminiscent of parts of the Grand Canyon.


hikers enter the canyon area, walking on the old Tonopah Tidewater Railroad berm. That's right - there was once a railroad through here that brought mined goods from Death Valley south to the main railway route to and from Los Angeles, near Barstow (now the corridor of Interstate 40.)

Then...after a date shake at Brian's date palm ranch tucked in a side canyon up from the main river concourse (in the family for 100 years): the poetry! Our reading this past Sunday at Tecopa Hot Springs Resort was tres magnifique! What a pleasure to hear Brian read his story about a family funeral that took place at a family funeral at the site of a ghost town north of Baker, California.....Brian's family has been in the northern Mojave Desert in the region east/southeast of Death Valley and adjacent to the Old Spanish Trail and Tonopah Tidewater Railroad for more than 100 years; he is a descendant of the former California senator Charles Brown who helped establish navigable roadways in the rugged area back in the early 20th century. Phantom Seed was a star lit-magazine, too!


from left to right: poet Suzy Q of Shoshone; memoir writer Brian Brown; me; Amy, owner of Tecopa Hot Springs Resort + curator of Tecopa Arts Gallery collaborative

and one of the coolest most orange sherbet and light-inspired sunsets I've seen...


only in the desert....

I want to add that Brian and others in the area, which is sparsely populated, is working fervently to raise awareness of the Amargosa River Conservancy, a nonprofit he started to help support efforts to further protect the river and its unique surrounding canyons and flood plain, both north and south, and to bring in funding for increasing the hiker accessibility to this remote and rugged terrain. Read more: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/california/preserves/art9752.html