Graduations, Chocolate Salads and Slot Canyons

The heat has hit Patagoofy, Patagooch, aka Patagonia. It doesn’t get any hotter than it is now, but it’s hovering at about 101 and 102. Luckily, we’re so dry here that I barely notice. But then, I have become a (dry, moderate) heat lover and a sun worshiper, despite my east coast upbringing.

A couple weeks ago I went with my friends Chris Whitcoe, Boaz Blain, and my brother to a favorite local hike of mine, a rock climbing/hiking endeavor in a ‘slot canyon’, where the walls are twenty or thirty feet high with just a couple feet in between. Much of the canyon has nasty water at the bottom, so the acrobatic task is to use the walls and natural uneveness of the rock to go through. In the pictures below, though you can’t see it, we’re at least 10 feet above the murky water bottom of the canyon. It’s a great workout, feels dangerous and daring, and leaves one with a triumphant, badass feeling of ninja-esque-ness.

This weekend Gabriel and Shanti Cousens held their Sacred Relationships workshop, which I was away during, but saw this picture of this super awesome salad with chocolate sauce that I wanted to share with you. Epic, oui?

This weekend I was in Park City, where I went to high school and where my family still lives, for one of my brothers’ graduation. A charming and majestic mountain town with perfect summer weather and relatively lush foliage for a desert state, I always love returning for visits there. I also love being able to make my family vegan and raw vegan food. Their favorite this time? A cherry-orange fruit smoothie.

Now, I’m back cozying in the embrace of the surrounding Patagonia mountains and very much enjoying my start-the-day routine of a power walk followed by an infrared sauna session, and my end-the-day routine of sunset meditation on the mesa followed by writing before bed 

Yes to life,

Courtney