Preserving nature’s beauty for own memories and for others

In the darkness of a desert night, I stood with my feet in the sands of time while a sky filled with a boundless field of stars glittered overhead.

The contrast was stunning.

I was surrounded by time.

Geological time that had created the sands at my feet, and astronomical time that is difficult for the mind to comprehend.

In Kumeyaay culture this is Earth and Sky, a place between the land, which is the source of life, and the celestial realm of ancestral spirits.

I had gone to the desert east of San Diego to seek something that urban dwellers can’t see.

The bright lights of cities dim the view of the heavens, but in this place away from urban glow, I could see the incredible beauty of the universe.

I was also surrounded by a completely natural world, and from this vantage point the hand of man was nowhere to be seen.

How increasingly rare that opportunity is becoming.

For the first few minutes, my focus was on the process of setting up a camera to capture the beauty, but soon I was lost in thought as my mind soared into the vastness of the heavens and this became another sit-and-see adventure.

In our busy lives, we rarely pause to simply watch the world around us, much less above us.

Fortunately, my life’s path has given many nights in wild places where a dark sky allows the eyes and mind to venture into new realms.

For several glorious hours it was just me, the sand dunes and the universe, as I watched the occasional meteor flash and the slow march of the stars across the sky.

It was a time to contemplate the cosmic forces.

The next day was stormy.

Gray clouds painted the desert in somber hues of brown and gray.

As I crested a hill that allowed for a view into Hawk Canyon, the clouds cracked, allowing a ray of sunshine to slice into the rift as if highlighting the fault line and geological forces that have created this wondrous place.

Again, I was gazing upon raw nature where the hand of man has not intruded in any lasting way.

A wind had come up and it was time to move on. Heading down Buttes Pass, I stopped to photograph a beautiful harrier hawk who was seeking shelter from the wind in the protective branches of a smoke tree.

When I got home, there was an email from Anza-Borrego Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting and protecting the magnificent park where I had been wandering.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is California’s largest and likely most unique park, encompassing nearly 700,000 acres that span from below sea level to pine-covered mountains nearly 6,000 feet in elevation.

It’s a place vital to the well-being of those who seek wild places to recharge and renew.

As the winter desert season gets underway, ABF was reminding visitors about their important “Leave No Trace” campaign designed to protect this unique and fragile place.

As the millions of urban dwellers living only a few hours from Anza-Borrego come to visit, it becomes ever more important to make sure parks are treated with loving care.

Park professionals who manage and protect our parks have a constant challenge to keep the most popular areas from being overused, littered with trash, scarred by ground fires or defaced by careless vehicle travel.

Educating visitors, especially youngsters, will hopefully produce a generation that clearly understands and appreciates the importance of keeping wilderness wild.

While elements of the Leave No Trace initiative make sense in any park environment, the ABF campaign is desert-specific, designed to minimize impacts of camping, campfires, travel and waste disposal, and preservation of cultural resources in a wilderness environment.

For parents introducing youngsters to the outdoors, this is a great program to get them involved and make them aware of outdoor ethics and the importance of taking care of the natural world.

To view details of the Leave No Trace Initiative, visit theabf.org and click on the “Our Work” button at the top of the page.

There is a slogan that “Parks are Forever.”

Let’s keep it that way.

Cowan is a freelance columnist. Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.