![]() Middle of nowhere, midweek, late September. Only large parties could make reservations and the Grill only had their patio open for dining due to the fact we are still in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. So, en route to Santa Fe for a lengthy visit with my dear sister, Pam (whom I wrote about in my column Peggy Ann Moore), Dana and I drove like shoppers stampeding into Best Buy on Black Friday pre-pandemic from Baker City, Oregon, to Hell’s Backbone Grill in teeny-tiny, eensy-weensy Boulder, Utah (population 225). Even though the cud-munchers were munching their way through the landscape-it was a mountain pass with alpine junipers and piñons-it remained beautiful to the eye.īut that might reflect my inveterate love of red rock country. (Having said that, however, I wouldn’t want to drive those 35 miles in the dark because every cow was as black as the proverbial raven in the coal mine during a once-in-a-lifetime eclipse). On the 35 mile trek or so off one deep blue highway -deep in southern Utah-to reach Boulder on another even more blue highway, Dana and I drove past dozens and dozens of healthy free range cows hewing close to the road but never making themselves a complete nuisance. Meanwhile, ranchers can go about their business. By being designated as a national monument, it preserves the vast ‘wilderness’ from the most destructive instincts of our society-mines, factories, industries, rampant development, foreign entities buying land for investment purposes. ![]() If the Clinton Administration had pushed for wilderness designation, conservative-minded southern Utahns ( read: ranchers ) would never have agreed to board the conservation bandwagon. President Clinton’s Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt convinced hardscrabble southern Utahns to accept the ‘national monument’ designation by assuring them that their bucolic way of life would not be altered. Back in the last days of political compromise when political compromise was accepted as the price of believing in the sanctity of democracy. I have a much better appreciation for these southern Utah national monuments (which includes the much-remarked upon Bears Ears National Monument ) after learning that their existence is due to some old-fashioned political compromise. ![]() If you click on the Hell’s Backbone Grill link above, you will land on their splash page and immediately be notified that the Biden Administration has rescinded the previous administration’s callous, but completely predictable, act of opening this majestic wilderness to extractive mining industries. In this case, nowhere is Boulder, Utah, which is engulfed by the 2 million acres set aside for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. My significant other, Dana, owned Hell’s Backbone Grill’s first cookbook-written 4 years into their conception-and had always wanted to visit the James Beard-recommended restaurant-literally-located in the Middle of Nowhere. The two founders have no qualms about letting you in on all of their culinary secrets. ![]() Along the way there are incredibly delicious recipes. It’s message is that it IS possible to live more simply, so that others may live. It’s message is that in order to build a community, you need to open yourself to the community already surrounding you. It’s message is that dedication, determination and backbreaking work pays off. You really shouldn’t however-because it’s message is universal. You might need to visit Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah, before you can appreciate the book’s contents. ![]() I have never read a cookbook before I read This Immeasurable Place. ![]()
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