Tyrannosaur Canyon
Chapter One
STEM WEATHERS SCRAMB to the top of the Mesa de los Viejos, tied his
burro to a dead juniper, and settled himself down on a dusty boulder. Catching
his breath, he mopped the sweat off his neck with a bandanna. A steady wind
blowing across the mesa top plucked at his beard, cooling him after the hot dead
air of the canyons.
He blew his nose and stuffed the bandanna back into his pocket. Studying
the familiar landmarks, he silently recited the names-Daggett Canyon, Sundown
Rocks, Navajo Rim, Orphan Mesa, Mesa del Yeso, Dead Eye Canyon,
Blue Earth, La Cuchilla, the Echo Badlands, the White Place, the Red Place,
and Tyrannosaur Canyon. The closet artist in him saw a fantastical realm
painted in gold, rose, and purple; but the geologist in him saw a set of Upper
Cretaceous fault-block plateaus, tilted, split, stripped, and scoured by time, as
if infinity had laid waste to the earth, leaving behind a wreckage of garish
rock.
Weathers slipped a packet of Bull Durham out of a greasy vest pocket and
rolled a smoke with gnarled, dirt-blackened hands, his fingernails cracked and
yellow. Striking a ... read full excerpt from: Tyrannosaur Canyon ebook
