Bearstone

Cloyd’s grandmother somehow manages to grow a small peach orchard on the dry land of White Mesa, Utah. The trees, “with their misshapen trunks and stunted, yellowed leaves, stood here and there against the sun and depended on the rain. Sometimes the rains didn’t come at all, and the peaches shriveled […]” (52). Despite these challenges, Cloyd and his grandmother cherish the fruit. When Cloyd arrives at Walter’s farm, he finds peach trees made lush on plenty of river water with huge, juicy, delicious fruit. Meant to please Walter’s late wife, the orchard is a testament to their long and happy marriage and the hard work and loving care that went into it.

Cloyd is amazed by the quality of the peaches, but his admiration soon turns to resentment: The white people get all the best locations for farming, while the Utes are left to struggle with the few resources of the desert. The trees represent for Cloyd the huge gap between his life and the more privileged one enjoyed by Walter. The boy’s anger festers until he strikes out at Walter by sawing lethal cuts into every tree. Later, regretting his action, Cloyd resolves to repair the damage, and he buys a new set of peach tree seedlings for replanting. The trees thus trace the history of Cloyd and Walter’s relationship, from admiration to resentment, then to regret, and, finally, to reconciliation and healing.

Tucked against the foothills of the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado, Piedra Ranch, owned by Walter Landis, lies beside the Piedra River that pours out of the mountains and irrigates Walter’s orchard and pastures. Long a happy place for him and his late wife, the ranch now seems like an obligation until Cloyd visits and gives the place new meaning. He and Walter bond during a summer of ranch work and again during the fall, when Cloyd lives there to help with Walter’s recuperation.

The ranch—Walter calls it a “farm” in honor of his wife’s belief that a ranch becomes a farm if it feels like home—serves as a base camp for Walter and Cloyd as they build their friendship and head up into the mountains in search of gold for Walter and spiritual fulfillment for Cloyd. It’s a peaceful backdrop where the two struggle to form a relationship and a new family.

One of the tallest mountains in the region, Rio Grande Pyramid beckons to Cloyd, who yearns to complete his spiritual pilgrimage by standing atop the peak and gazing across the world. The Pyramid, so named for the shape of its summit, gets the moniker Rio Grande because its slopes form the source of that famous river. Atop the summit, Cloyd experiences a vast sense of spiritual communion with the mountains and his ancestral people. In that sense, the peak becomes a literal pinnacle of achievement for Cloyd.