The past 6 months have been filled with enormous challenges from the pandemic health crisis to civil unrest in the United States which is grappling with a long legacy of racism and injustice. I decided to hit the open road the last 3 weeks and travel across American through Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and California. I took the path of the nomad and dirtbag and fully embraced it! I journaled and sketched through the entire trip.
What I found was peace of mind against the backdrop of planet in peril. I hiked 30 miles through the Wind River Range in the Cirque of Towers of Wyoming. Backcountry camping with no roads or trails can give you a freedom like nothing you have ever experienced if you are willing to take the risk. Drinking from streams and ice melt from mountain tops. I climbed, Koch Peak in the Taylor Hilgard Range in Montana and Mount Mitchell in Wyoming which is at an elevation of 12,480. Ft., I suffered a bit of altitude sickness, but it was well worth it. The night skies were like no other. No light pollution and infinite stars, comets and the vast milky way.
Traveling Highway 1 was a winding blur of new experiences. The redwoods are the quiet giants that protect our coast and the biodiversity of our Earth. Our planet is facing dual climate and nature crises that threaten life as we know it. Seeing it in the backcountry firsthand with pollution, logging and climate change was eye opening. Traveling through little towns and large cities gave me an entire new perspective of how far off we are as humans. People are looking for normal and don’t fully comprehend the challenges that are presented before us. It is time to slow down and stop worrying about corporate profits and start worry about the preservation of our natural world and how we will keep it safe for generations to come.
-Jeremy Caniglia
Jeremy Caniglia the Art Activist traveling across the United States
