Bill Kettler
Hiking The Southwest
Bill Kettler
Residing in the southwest I have been fortunate enough to be able to take the time and explore areas out my back door that other families have saved years for just to be able to afford the opportunity. I have been raised with an appreciation of the outdoors and have always taken the time to understand and explore the world around me. Since my early years I have had the opportunity to share the experiences of National Parks, Wilderness Areas, State Parks and other areas of historical interest. I have had the opportunity to explore the archaeological ruins of the Native American cultures that existed from about 1200 BC and experienced the silent remains of ghost towns left by early pioneers settling this country. I have also been fortunate enough to come across the signs and signatures of this earth’s past inhabitants, presented to us in the form of archaeological ruins or traces of paleontology. Dinosaur tracks left millions of years ago, petrified remains of both plant and animal, The artistic expression of the ancient Native American as displayed in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs. The occasional signatures of pioneer left transcribed with wagon wheel axle grease noted on a bolder or cliff face while settling the west.
These are the areas I have highlighted within this site and are places rich with beauty and history, locations that give one the opportunity to become one with the history, to look through the eyes of those that settled this nation and see both how and where they lived. It is a rare opportunity one has to walk through the same doorway that someone as infamous as Butch Cassidy had as a child and looking through a weathered window in his boyhood home at the snow covered mountains as if it were through his eyes.
Touching a fragmented piece of pottery created thousands of years ago by the ancient Anasazi who farmed this land from 700 to 1300 AD, not realizing that it was their fate to become an extinct civilization a doom brought on by unexpected drought Phenomenon which some claim we are beginning to experience ourselves in the 20th Century.
I spend most of my time outside appreciating artistry of our world - "When I'm struggling or feeling lost, I hit the trail and am reminded of the bigger thing: wildness itself. That’s the thread I’ve followed my whole life—in business, in my free time, with my friends and family—and it’s the thing that always sets me right again. I think everyone needs to be part of something bigger than themselves to tame the anxieties and feel whole again. I’m sure religion does that for some folks. Wilderness is my church and the trail is my ritual."
ALL photos I have posted on this forum are for personal viewing and evaluation use only and are copyrighted © Bill Kettler 2013 unless otherwise indicated.
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