September 20, 2026

Equinox Time

The equinox is coming up in a few days.  Vernal for the southern hemisphere, and Autumnal for the northern hemisphere.  This is a time to examine where in your life you are out of balance.  It could be in any area, including relationships, finances, employment, or health to name a few. 

In addition to photographing the sunset at the Parowan Gap, I also do a bowl burning ceremony that evening.  On a piece of paper, I write on one side what no longer serves as my release, and on the other side, I write my positive outcome to take the place of what is being released.

For the bowl burning, I use a metal bowl with alcohol and Epsom salts. Skewer your paper with a stick and prop it edge to edge on the bowl.  That will hold it above the flames to burn.  Outside of course!  If you wish to do a simpler version, you can just take your paper outside and set a match to it.  The fire will dissolve and energize your intent and send it up to your higher aspects to be manifested. 

My trip over to the Parowan Gap will depend on the weather and clear skies.  I will report about that soon! 

September 19, 2026

The Closing Reception

 

Saturday night marked the end of this fabulous conference.  There was lots of food, a costume party, and a very loud rock band.  The band was called Hitchhiker.  It featured Travis Taylor as the lead singer, and included several other speakers from the conference.  Travis is the somewhat kooky head  scientist for Skinwalker Ranch. Here he is.

A few people wore costumes, but not as many as I assume you would see at other national conferences.  I also think that we had more last year.
So there you have it.  Good bye until next year.  I am already looking forward to it!

September 18, 2026

Skinwalker Ranch

 

During the PhenomeCon conference, quite a few extra activities were offered before, at lunch time, and in the evening after the actual presenters were speaking.  After the first day of presentations, I chose to go on a field trip up to the main gate of Skinwalker Ranch.  BTW—this is as far as they will allow you to go for obvious liability purposes!

The ranch is 512 acres of land mainly surrounded by the Ute Reservation near Fort Duchene, Utah, in the Uintah Basin.  It is literally out in the middle of nowhere.  The Uintah Basin has a number of geological and electromagnetic anomalies that seem to cause a wide variety of paranormal phenomena.  These include sightings of criptids, UFO’s, orbs, portals opening and closing, ghosts and dark figures, and any number of unexplained things.  These have been happening for hundreds of years, not only on the ranch, but in the whole surrounding area.  The “Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” show on the History channel depicts many of these strange things.  Check it out!

So on that night, about 50 of us loaded up onto 2 buses to head out to the ranch, about a 35 minute drive.  One bus was hosted by Thomas Winterton.

The other was hosted by “Dragon” Arnold.

They then switched buses on the way back.  We were highly entertained by their personal stories and stories of the happenings on the ranch.

The sun had just set by the time we got to the gate.  During the day there is a guard there.  Note the “Keep Out” signs!



Here is the mesa where a lot of the mysterious happenings occur. 


After a photo op, we loaded back onto the buses and drove to a spot south of the ranch property and where we could see the lights of neighboring properties on either side.  Everyone was pretty attentive to seeing if anything strange happened while we were out there. I did have a sighting of sorts.  At one point, I looked straight upwards and saw a small light blue orb.  I glanced down briefly and then back up to see if I was looking at something that was moving, like an airplane or a satellite.  The orb was gone.  No one else saw it.

So that was my entertainment for the evening.  In spite of not seeing much of anything odd or unusual, just listening to Thomas and Dragon was a real treat in itself.

September 17, 2026

My First Day of Adventure

 

On the day before the conference began, I drove up from Cedar City and went directly to McConkie Ranch to view and photograph the petroglyphs.  I visited the ranch last year, and hiked to a different rock art panel.  There are 2 here.  This is private property, but the family that has owned it for many generations graciously allows people to come and experience the magic.

My first order of business was to climb up a very steep and slippery switchback trail to reach the rock art, which was located about half way up this canyon wall just beyond the trees.

The very tall figures below are done in the Classic Vernal Style of Fremont rock art.  They are characterized by having a trapezoidal figure with broad shoulders and narrow waists.  Because they have been protected by the property owners, they are pristine. 




Now, take a look at the feet on this guy.  I have seen other petroglyphs with very big hands, but not big feet like this.  I have no idea what this symbolism means.  One of the presenters at the conference even suggested that this represents "Bigfoot" but I highly doubt that.

So after scrambling down that slippery slope, I checked into my hotel.  This is what greeted me!