One of the cover stories on the front page of this morning’s Albuquerque Journal caught my eye. The picture showed a cowboy driving cattle across rangeland in the shadow of Cabezon Peak. It was right in the area where we had hiked twice this week. The subject of the article was a high school senior who is the son of one of the ranch owners whose cattle roam throughout the vast emptiness of the Rio Puerco Valley, one of my favorite hiking destinations.
I started thinking about what “Life on the Range” means to me and how different that is from what it means to others. Because it is rare to see another human being when we are out there wandering through the eroded landscape, admiring weird rock formations and vistas that stretch for miles in every direction, I feel my spirit come alive with awe and admiration for the beautiful world that God created. The hardworking high school senior featured in the news story says that for him, “cowboying is both his life and his way of life.” He has college goals at present but eventually plans a life of ranching out here where he was raised.
Although we hike on public BLM land we often come across scattered groups of cows that stare at us with that look of suspicion wondering if we are going to herd them somewhere. What is life for them on the range? As brown and barren as the ground is, I can’t comprehend how they even survive in such “pasture.” I was heartened in the article to read that one of the cowboy’s jobs is to dispense feed to the cattle in the form of scattered hay cubes. So they do get fed somewhere out there. Even so, what is their life, ultimately, except to, sooner than later, end up as a beef patty in someone’s Burger King Whopper.
And then there is the life of the poor, struggling “wildflowers” that Lee is anxious to photograph on our hikes now that spring is here. He didn’t expect to see much on the hike yesterday and his expectations were fulfilled. Even if a bit of greenery were to poke through the dry sand I’m sure one of those cows would eventually find it and gobble it up.
Plant life is transitory, cattle life is brief and human beings will also disappear from the landscape. But the one enduring thing that will remain out there is the dirt and rocks. I find such majesty and beauty in these tall, eroded spires. I’m grateful for agencies like the BLM who manage these public lands. The weather may eventually change the shape of the formations but as long as man and his machines can’t come in and interfere with the land those rocks will be there long after you and I leave this earth.
Happy Easter to everyone. He is risen and because of His resurrection we have hope that goes beyond this temporal life.
Living Wonderously 
I also do enjoy the scenery of our open spaces and recognize ranchers want to support themselves with this public land; I only want to ask BLM to protect and preserve some of these thousands of acres in a more natural vegetative state, growing a variety of plants – not subject to complete eradication by cattle.