neoscenes: projects: center of the universe

They took shelter in the center (the physical manifestation of the center, that is). The entire herd died, so the center inside and out was strewn with dessicating corpses. Among them were the small bodies of the new spring lambs. The relative humidity is extremely low in the San Luis Valley, so that organic matter mummifies rather than rots. We wandered around and through, noticing that there was a small artesian well in the middle of a 55-gallon drum that was sunken into the sediments about 20 meters to the east of the house.

At any rate, I wanted to share the view and the atmosphere with friends. ("Nice guy," they say later...). So I stopped and forced everybody out of the car for a look.

That was the beginning of my explorations of the center which have continued almost yearly to the present time. There was one three-year gap between visits after New Years Day, 1992 when Nick and I drove down from Golden where I was staying at Rick and Sally's place after a great New Years Eve Party. On that trip, when we arrived at the center around sunset, the temperature was around -20 Farenheit. Unfortunately, we were driven off by a state trooper who told us to leave before I was able to complete a circuit and sacrifice ritual. That's something I perform each time I go there -- leaving an object, picking something up, and making a complete circuit around the house, stopping at each face and corner locus. Nick and I left and went to camp overnight at the Sand Dunes where the temperature went below -30 Farenheit and the only way we stayed warm was cooking and eating dinner in the well-heated campground bathrooms. There wasn't a soul around, although we did come on the fresh puma (mountain lion) tracks in the creaking dry snow. The next morning we returned to the center to find it enveloped in a crystal ice fog that gradually cleared to brilliant sunshine. Strangely enough, but in keeping with the, returning to Denver later in the day and heading north over Poncha Pass, the temperature was at least 40 degrees warmer...

I did fly over the center in a jet going from Denver to Phoenix with my son, Loki, in 1994, and although I was able to point the center out to him, it was still about six miles away as the crow flies... Such is life. I had to wait another 18 months for the next visit on land. That visit came in mid-August of 1995.

It was a fine day, the drive from Boulder was leisurely although I did notice a great deal of traffic on State Route 285 all the way. I stayed overnight at my friend Hector's place in Crestone on the Baca Grande (where I hope to buy some land and build a solar home on in the next years...). The next morning I went down to Alamosa to visit Adams State College and their Art Department (unsuccessful job hunting...). Then I headed for the Center. The Sangre de Christo Mountains and the Valley had gotten an enormous amount of rain that summer so the mosquitos were as intense as the vegetation was lush. The center was green and swarming! I spent an hour wandering around examining what I have looked at many times before. Time changes everything including myself. I saw nothing more than I saw in the beginning, but everything seems to be more clear, transparent, and ultimately pregnant with vital being-ness. I have taken so many people to this place, and have come there so many times in all seasons of year, that the Place is ingrained in my soul for whatever reason that may come to be.

Burnt Siena, a color straight from the Umbrian hills, is the same color as the feral cat that was living around the center at one period of time. I guess I have outlived that beast that once startled me as I clambered around the place in late summer when the weeds were chest high. And the time when a group of us who were staying at a friends place in Crestone were on our way to the Sand Dunes. We stopped and the others pulled up a bit later in their car -- they had seen an owl on the road -- roadkill -- and had stopped to examine the corpse. Ken cut a leg and claw off. I made an image of everyone standing in a circle around Ken holding this huge raptor claw. Anthony and I stopped on our way south to Arizona once.

Turns out there is a small lake northeast of the center about a mile, one of the San Luis Lakes, where the Navajo creation legend is said to have taken place -- the place where the first man and woman came forth. Further to the north, about ten miles, near Crestone, there is a Carmelite Monastery, a Hindu Ashram, and a Buddhist Temple. And I recall one time, when visiting a friend's place in Crestone, I was out mountain-biking along one of the many small creeks that come rushing out of the Crestone Peaks area that towers over the valley, when I came upon a lone figure amongst the cottonwoods and aspens, a rastafarian, sitting by a fire, drumming. There are energies of all kinds running in certain areas of the San Luis Valley. Geologically, the Valley is said to contain the largest single aquifer in the entire west of the United States.

Directions

The center just happens to be located in the southern part of the North American continent at an approximate elevation of 8000 feet above sea level on the floor of a broad valley surrounded by mountains that reach over 14,000 feet.

In terms of geographic precision, I will narrow things down until we arrive at the Threshold of the center. In the southwest of what is presently the geopolitical entity The United States of America, there is the state of Colorado, and in the southern-central region of that state there is a huge valley, the San Luis Valley.

The San Luis is only a few miles across at its northernmost end, but it broadens and opens to the south until it spills over the New Mexico-Colorado border and is perhaps 75 miles wide. It is defined on the East by the Sangre de Christo Mountains, and on the West by the San Juan Mountains. From North to South, the valley spans over 150 miles. Approximately 75 miles south of the north end of the valley there is a crook in the Sangre de Christo mountains that, over geologic time, has filled with an enormous deposit of wind blown sand, now known as the Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

If you are arriving by car, there are two sets of directions. The nearest international airport is located in Denver, the capital of the state of Colorado. That is about 250 miles by road from The center. There is another smaller airport for commuter and private planes in Alamosa (the nearest town of any size), about 12 miles from the center. Anyway, it is easiest to get to the center by car, especially as the distance to be covered are extreme and the weather also -- hot in summer, and often very cold in winter (check the Alamosa link above for the local weather statistics).

From Denver, one can proceed directly onto State Route 285 that heads first west into the Rockies, then gradually turns southwest, traversing a number of easy passes (Kenosha and Trout Creek) before turning directly south to briefly follow the Arkansas River and then heads up Poncha Pass before entering the far north end of the San Luis Valley. Shortly after the small village of Villa Grove, one turns onto Route 17 which heads due south through Moffat and Hooper and then, right before the village of Mosca, one sees the sign for the Great Sand Dunes to the left (east). * Turn here towards the Dunes and go about three miles (maybe less), looking for the center, which will be on the left (north) side of the road back about 20 yards. You have arrived! Watch out for the mosquitos if you go there in the summer, especially around the artisian well that is about 20 meters to the east of the center.

From Alamosa/Santa Fe/Albuquerque and New Mexico to the south, simply head north on Route 17 beyond Mosca and turn east at the Sand Dunes road (see * above)...