To breathe the aridity and feel the uplifted layers, I circumnavigated the Colorado Plateau by bike. Pedaling across this high desert let me experience the place on a human scale--both spatially and temporally. Bikes are tools of resistance. 

I planned my route around the Colorado Plateau's key towns, frontline communities, and threatened landscapes. I started in eastern Utah's coal country, ventured through the iconic red rock landscapes of southern Utah, explored the forests of southwest Colorado, and pedaled through Dinétah. Along the way I visited sites of extreme extraction--from the tar sands mine in Utah to the Navajo Generating Station--and shared many meals and vulnerable conversations with people of the Plateau.