Secret places

[J&S]

Well, here's a topic where we can all "let it hang out!"
We believe there are places that shouldn't be publicized.
We believe there are places that shouldn't wind up in Arizona Highways.
Yes, we believe there are places that shouldn't wind up on HAZ!
Or anywhere else!

What ever happened to "keeping a secret?"
Are people so motivated to "tell one another" that they ruin the last great places?
Are people so profit-motivated that they will whore their stories to anyone who pays?
What has happened that we have to sell our soul in order to gain appreciation?

We have no problem promoting places that can "stand a lot of usage."
We have no problem writing about places where people CAN and SHOULD go.

But what about those "other places?"
Have we forgotten the concept of "sacredness?"
Do we not care about "personal discovery" anymore?
Is nothing sacred no more?
Should everything become a "party spot?" A "destination hike?"
Has Outside and Arizona Highways magazines become the "Playboy" of the outdoors?
Sure looks like it to us. How far WILL they go to sell issues and subscriptions?

What the heck is going on here as far as Arizona's "secret places" and "secret spots?"

Are they being sold to the highest dollar? Are they all just waiting to be cover shots?

Geeze, is there no honor?

J&S

PS--Here is the definition of "secret" according to dictionary.com:

se·cret ( P ) Pronunciation Key (skrt)
adj.
Kept hidden from knowledge or view; concealed.
Dependably discreet.
Operating in a hidden or confidential manner: a secret agent.
Not expressed; inward: their secret thoughts.
Not frequented; secluded: wandered about the secret byways of Paris.
Known or shared only by the initiated: secret rites.
Beyond ordinary understanding; mysterious.
Containing information, the unauthorized disclosure of which poses a grave threat to national security.

n.
Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few.
Something that remains beyond understanding or explanation; a mystery.
A method or formula on which success is based: The secret of this dish is in the sauce.
Secret A variable prayer said after the Offertory and before the Preface in the Mass.

[CatValet]

Wow, I've never thought of Arizona Highways as the "Playboy of the Outdoors" before. I'm waiting for the "Hardbody Hotties of the Verde Valley" pictorial.

I'm sure we all have those incredible spots we cherish and share only with our closest friends. Sometimes, the specialness of the places is as much subjective as objective: Who we were with when we went there, special events and bonding which occurred, insights or epiphanies which occurred (I understand the road to Damascus is not particularly enlightening of itself), or even substances ingested, for those children of the 60s....

I recall a special spot on the Red Hills Trail between lower LaBarge Box and Dripping Springs. We woke up at dawn after a vicious winter storm, and had to shatter the panes of ice over the tent to get out. Water had leaked into the tent and frozen around my levis, which were solid with a 90 degree bend at the knees. Someone took a picture of me, now long gone, holding them to thaw over a fire of damp sotol stalks, wearing my boots, my down jacket, my western gunbelt, and my BVDs.

Yeah, I was cute in my undies, but what makes the memory was sharing the experience with my roomy and bud Alan Dale Fleming and his dog Gunney(Semper Fi my friend, RIP), USMC, Vietnam, RECON. Alan died of a brain tumor in 1986-Agent Orange.....Sometimes it's not the trail, its the journey. -R

[ck1]

Interesting thread...I think anyone who truely experiences the outdoors at a higher level has that type of secret place. I don't know that perhaps those same areas haven't been revealed via magazines or books, but still have that "secret" feel to it....

I read reacently that Outside and/or Backpacker (can't remember which) was, editorially, looking at making it less easy for people to locate the places they report on...not providing as much detailed info in the "how to get there" area...I'm thinking it might have been Outside, as I remember them mentioning a Krakaur article...
_________________
-Colin

"The Journey is the Destination"

[plummer150]

Ahh yes, secret places. I know exactly what you're talking about. Those kind of sucluded places are the best. I love just going up there by myself or with one other person and just enjoying the beauty that is. The quietness and the sounds of nature are all i'll hear-hopping not to see or hear anyone else up in the middle of nowhere up on top of that mountain that i am on. I had a special moment place like that in Nevada somewhere between Reno and Elco there on I 80, I also have a place like that here in State College that I can hike to and just think things over and listen to the sounds of silence.
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"IRONMAN" cometh, hiketh, destroyeth

[desert dweller]

I don't think I have ever gone to a place just because someone wrote about it . Backpacker mag has a southwest editor who has written about some pretty remote places in Az. Perhaps this is a good thing because the places written about could be considered a list of places not to go or a list of places to recommend to folks who inquire about hiking locations.

There are places I don't mention to anyone, places I share with some and places I would tell anyone about.

The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher is a great example of being very descriptive about an area without saying exactly where it is.