A new year to go out and explore new High Desert places and sites

With the dawning of each new year, nearly 39% of Americans make a New Year's Resolution.

“I will lose those unsightly 180 pounds by divorcing him.”

“I will be a better child for my parents and will only call twice this year for money.”

“I will stop writing about seeing a Sasquatch.”

All good intentions but sadly, only about 9% of those same Americans make good on their personal promises to themselves.

I like the quote from the creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Waterson.

“I’m resolving to just wing it and see what happens.”

Makes logical sense to me.

Each year I want to lose some weight, but that doesn't happen. Each year I want to grow back the hair I lost in the previous year, but that doesn’t happen. Each year I want to work out five times per week, but that doesn’t happen. Each year I want to become a better storyteller, but . . .

So in the spirit of Bill Waterson, I finally have just realized that winging it might be the best approach to a New Year.

That is what happens when I, alone or with others, hit the byways. Often I may have a final destination in mind but sometimes I do not.

I’m just winging it on the road.

If I had not, then I would not have experienced the many places I have written about in the past.

Each encounter with a person, place, or thing is worthwhile. Well, unless that person is aiming to boil me alive, or that place is a deadly stinkhole, or the thing is from Planet Kill All Humans.

Besides those obvious items that may be detrimental to a person’s health, traveling the byways usually offers up new adventures.

And maybe that is why we should have a resolution for the beginning of this new year - to go out and explore new places and sites.

If I hadn’t, the giant rock in Landers, California would still be a mystery to me. The boulder, rumored to be the largest free standing in the world, measures 6,000 square feet and is nearly seven stories tall. The local Native American tribes believed this hunk of rock had a spiritual side to it and would often hold ceremonies in its shadow. Even today, UFO junkies and spiritualists visit the site to get a better understanding of whatever they are attempting to understand.

If I hadn’t, the Trona Pinnacles would only be something I had viewed while watching Star Trek V, Planet of the Apes, or one of another dozen films amd television series. I would have missed out that these out-of-world creations were actually tufas which were left over when a great inland sea near Trona, California filled the area from mountain ranges from the east and west and then dried up leaving the pinnacles behind as the only reminder it had ever existed. This body of water was nearly 640 feet deep. To put into perspective, that’s only about 100 feet short of the depth of Lake Huron, one of the five Great Lakes in the United States.

If I hadn’t, the Grapevine Canyon Petroglyphs may be something I would catch on a Sunday afternoon while watching the History Channel's various In Search of Aliens television shows. Instead, while walking up the sandy wash of Grapevine Canyon, just a few miles northwest of the town of Laughlin along Christmas Tree Pass, I realized the artistic talents of the Native Americans who called this area home nearly a thousand years ago. Hundreds of carved out drawings depicting everyday life for the tribe or individual are in evidence along this sacred section of the canyon on Spirit Mountain - yes, even including etchings of what look like aliens.

If I hadn’t, the corner made so famous in Winslow, Arizona by the Eagles would only be lyrics in my brain. Instead, Laureen and I walked the short streets mentioned in the song Take It Easy, written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Brown and released in 1972. Taking photographs by the two statues of the song writers was not only fun but felt musically historic. Too bad the band never played in this small burg as a way to say thanks.

If I hadn’t, the stone faces looking down at me from Mount Rushmore would be something I had only witnessed on a t-shirt, meme, or a coffee mug. But as Laureen and I made our way through the entrance and took a gander up at the four presidents’ likenesses sculpted out of solid rock on Black Elk Peak in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the monumental task of the carvings came to life. The design, tenacity, and sheer willpower of the creator, Gutzon Borglum was on full display for the nearly two million visitors the memorial receives each year.

If I hadn’t, a lighthouse in the middle of the desert would have been only something I would have picked up on Atlas-Obscura. But as my buddy Paul, and I drove over some bumpy roads in the Mojave Desert a few miles northwest of the town of Hinkly, the full sized lighthouse built in 2017 by artist Daniel Hawkins shined brightly in the distance. There I stood looking up at this creation by an eccentric designer, which took ten years of planning before it was completed and functioning. I would have missed the joy of seeing it with my own eyes.

If I hadn’t, I may have missed out on some of the coolest and most unusual things and people possible.

Traveling can be expensive, or traveling can be very inexpensive. Contradiction? Not really when one looks at their personal finances and then may take a moment to consider their desires. It is, at times, priceless.

I often give talks to various organizations about my writing and travel experiences. And to my great amazement most of the audience stays awake and does not walk out. Except that one time when I joked about embellishing a sighting of a Sasquatch in the Sequoias near Highway 49 in California. That time, a rather large and hairy individual suddenly grunted and stormed out of the room. It was then I knew I could not please everyone in attendance.

A question I am asked almost at every event is, how does someone afford to travel to experience new life moments?

I usually pause a moment and explain that a trip down the hill to a museum in San Bernardino or Riverside could be that experience they are looking for. Perhaps a short road trip winding through the roads of Yucaipa to the small town of Oak Glen which will show the visitor a wonderful day among tall trees and an enchanting old village feeling.

The point is to travel when one can no matter the distance. I love it and will continue for as long as the good Lord will allow me.

As Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”

It is with these thoughts that I look forward to the new year and the new quests, experiences, and travel that await.

It does not matter if one travels three miles from home or three thousand miles from home, as long as new adventures are the final destination.

And, I would love to hear about those adventures.

John can be contacted at: beyersbyways@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Unearth High Desert Hidden Gems in the New Year