David and Janet Carle have completed the trans-America portion of their 38th parallel adventure. Over the past month they have explored how water, environment, and culture intersect at this latitude across the US, from east to west. This week, they traveled through October snow to Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park and on to Telluride, where they joined the 350 Global Climate Change event. They followed the Colorado River to Moab, Utah, where efforts are underway to clean up uranium tailings along the river, then through the many water-sculpted national parks along the 38th parallel, and finally to eastern Nevada, where the battle is on to prevent local groundwater from being diverted to Las Vegas. The Carles will spend the winter at home in Mono Lake, and will embark on an international expedition in the spring, investigating water and environmental issues along the 38th parallel in Asia and Europe.
From Janet and David Carle’s blog, Parallel Universe: 38º N:
We reached Salida, Colorado along with a night of winter weather. So we stayed two nights with our former Mono Basin neighbors, Shannon and Brett, took a day off from traveling, and learned about a battle led by local citizens against the export of nearby mountain “springwater” (actually groundwater) by the Nestle Co. to their Denver bottling plant….Read More
A lot of planning has gone into this trip, but the surprises keep coming and have made for some of our best experiences. Telluride is a ski town that used to be a mining town and is almost right on the 38th parallel. We planned to look into water issues (Sam Miguel Creek runs right through town), then learned that a 350 Global Climate Change event was scheduled for October 24….Read More
Radioactive Cleanup on the Colorado
In Moab, UT, 38 34′, 109 32′; we met Kimberly Schappert by choosing the Up the Creek tents-only campground in the middle of town. Kim came to Moab over 20 years ago, and started a mountain biking magazine. She has seen Moab change from a small mining town with a Uranium Cafe and Atomic Grill, into a mecca for outdoor recreation….Read More
We arrived in the old mining town of Pioche, 37°56′, 114°27′, on a bitterly cold afternoon. The local history museum provided a warm shelter and many interesting exhibits. It was staffed by Barbara Zelch, who told us her husband has been very involved in the battle over Las Vegas planning to export groundwater from eastern Nevada valleys….Read More
