Social nudity is certainly nothing new here. The tradition is common at hot springs and was documented back to the miners who often enjoyed these warm waters after a hard day's work. Naturism, as we know it today, was undoubtedly the sensible choice for soaking when Ute tribes flourished here the Valley. But over time, clothing came to represent much more than its functional use, becoming a cultural expectation even in…

Orient Land Trust (OLT) staff and volunteers joined three representatives from The Nature Conservancy on July 29th and 30th for the annual assessment of the conservation easement on the ranch and hot springs properties. For those who haven't heard, the OLT has partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to place a conservation easement on 1,270 acres encompassing the ranch and hot springs. This easement was implemented in 2010 to ensure…

Do you like to host parties and events? Do you belong to a private club, civic organization or have an "in" with a unique venue that could host an OLT themed fundraising event for little or no cost? We would also like to find hosts on the Front Range and in Colorado and New Mexico who could hold a benefit event for OLT. Dan Jones is hosting a small Garden…

First, we would love to hear from you if you would be interested in sharing your art inspired by OLT (plein air, paintings, photographs, pottery, jewelry, sculpture, etc.) with the Resource Development Committee for a fundraiser to be held in October (date to be announced next month). Contact Martin Jolley.   Second, hold the date of October 4th: Here at the Fritz in Salida. John Lorenz photographs of and around OLT.…

Honoring Orient Land Trust Earth's crust waxes thin in our desert,a skin of hot waters rising, sparse rainscooling this patchwork of pinon and sage,pounding forces too star-staged to fight.And so we roll like morning light,like dunes, like ant hills, like the wavesof the one-time sea nowdisappeared into our aquifer, crystal-centered. In the silence descending from the Sangresthe rhythms grow obviousas the petite sunflowers lining our dirt roads.Anything but blank, our…