GET TO KNOW NATURE
Sloan Canyon
Look closely at the featured photograph for the spired hat and the sharp, eagle-like eye and nose. Can you see his cascading beard? Composed of the compressed sands of Mother Earth and hewn by acts of nature and time, this rock feature — this Desert Father — is at home in Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area.
Native American wisdom offers that we are all Mother Earth's children. "The desert is our great teacher, and our great healer ... the desert is our mother ... it is in, and of, our deepest souls," says poet Ruth Nolan, a professor at the College of the Desert.
Sloan Canyon encompasses 48,438 acres of desert on the southeast side of the Las Vegas Valley. The national conservation area exhibits a nearly complete spectrum of plants and animals one might expect to find in the Mojave Desert (including Big Horn sheep) and boasts great mysteries, according to Alan O'Neill, Friends of Sloan Canyon board member. A significant cultural site with more than 300 petroglyph panels and designs representing native cultures dating from the Archaic to the historic era. With an array of volcanic features, it also provides a window to what the area was like millions of years ago. Although land managers do not disclose the location of some treasures, every experience in the conservation area can inspire naturalistic awe — the wonder we feel in the presence of something that transcends our understanding of the world.
A growing body of research suggests that experiencing awe — including moments of wonderment felt when spending time in and with nature — can promote altruism, loving-kindness, and magnanimous behavior. Practicing compassionate action, according to The Charter for Compassion/Compassionate Las Vegas, also produces endorphins, the brain's natural pain reducer, which leads to feeling better physically.
| 
