In The Desert with 40 Strangers
Where do I even begin with this one. It all started with me scrolling through TikTok, as the average twenty something year old does. I came across a video of a girl who said something along the lines of,
“hey, I’m single and want to do a camping trip with a bunch of other singles.”
I thought to myself, that sounds like me! So I added my brief comment saying “I’m in” and waited, half expecting nothing to come of it. Boy was I wrong. About a week later another video was posted by the same person saying things blew up, and a facebook group was started. Outsiders Together. I joined and saw an event was created for a three day trip down to the Valley of Fire State Park, just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, I’m quite introverted, but I thought, Scott – my therapist – would want me to go and see what happens. The plan – roll up and step into a group of people who are already talking to each other, that way I can hang out and listen while the extroverts of the group did the talking for me. Little did I know that being surrounded by 40 other extroverts would bring out a different side of Wes. By the end of the trip I was starting conversations, meeting new people, and creating conversation circles of my own.
Thursday night and Friday morning I packed the MINI with my air mattress, food, beer, and clothes… forgot the sunscreen though. I hopped on i-15 and drove south from Salt Lake. It was a straight shot for the whole journey, even though the driving wasn’t terribly exciting, the views did not disappoint. I came out of my driving hypnosis from google maps shouting at the top of it’s lungs that I needed to exit the freeway. This is where my nerves started to kick in and I got butterflies. I was 20 minutes away from meeting 40 strangers in the desert, what in the world was I doing? Half of the drive from the freeway was residential/small town roads and the other half was winding desert roads and cresting hills, in other words, a MINI driver’s dream. Mind you, I’ve been driving for 6 hours so I hit the windy roads as the sun was setting. This is where inspiration for a painting first struck. There was a mesa jetting out of the desert and the light caught the top layer of sandstone making it glow like fire. It was an astonishing sight that I wish I could have enjoyed for longer. I wanted to snag a camping spot before the sun went down, so onward I went. The land we were staying on was at the end of a rough, dirt road. I felt lost for a second, but like a scene from a movie, I crested a hill and in front of me was a group of vans, trucks, cars, tents, and people. Here we go!
The first night in the desert set the mood for the rest of the trip. Two different camp fires, music in the background, and incredible stories of climbing mountains, hiking slot canyons, moose encounters and so much more. After meeting a whole heap of people late into the evening I became hungry, and for some reason no one else was eating, It was probably because we were all having more fun than expected. Now, I brought a steak for the first night to treat myself so I went to my car, grabbed my cast iron pan, my steak, and some butter. I walked back to the campfire, set up my chair and flopped the pan on the fire. This drew more attention than I would have liked, but I was a couple beers in so I went with the flow. The second the pan was hot I dropped a dab of butter on the pan and slapped my steak in the middle of it. From this point on I would be referred to as “steak guy” for the rest of the night. After dinner, everyone decided to take a tour of each others rigs. This group had the full spectrum, I’m talking two pound backpacking tents, rooftop tents, beds in the back of SUVs, the MINI had an air mattress in the back seat, fully loaded vans, and even an airstream. We had it all.
The second day started slow with the occasional person rolling out of their rigs at the ass crack of dawn and meandering over to the fire pits. A large circle formed as conversations got deeper now that we were all comfortable with each other. Time seems to move so slow with the Outsiders, it’s surreal in the best way possible. I felt like I had four different conversations about starting new businesses, six conversations mentioning the wild donkeys, and eight conversations talking about cups of coffee all in the span of an hour. As everyone started to wake up, people made breakfast and talks of a hike in the state park started going around. We loaded up in each other’s cars and convoyed to the Valley of Fire. We landed on a hike that ironically had an active missing person investigation. We quite literally hiked through the desert with a youth group pastor at the lead. The group meandered over hills and waves with sandstone veins of yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, and burnt sienna. Through a slot canyon and over large rock formations. It was a short, but breathtaking hike. A fellow introvert and I made it back to the cars before the rest of the group and decided to meet everyone back at camp. We sat down at a lovely pop up table and I looked out into the distance at Lake Mead. Mesas sat on the opposite end, the raking light creating cobalt blue shadows, Inspiration struck and I had to do a little sketch of the landscape.
I was finishing this painting as the rest of the group rolled into the camp. Since we were in the desert, it was quite hot, and nothing sounded better after that hike than a quick dip in the lake. I grabbed a beer and walked down to the shoreline where people had already jumped in. A brief mention of the water being frigid had floated around, but it was so hot we didn’t care. I have been known as a clumsy person my whole life, so as you can expect, I slipped about three times while getting into this 50° water. Was it embarrassing? Yes. Was it funny? Also yes! Standing in a circle with a group of Outsiders is a blast, but after 20 minutes or so, we ALL lost feeling in our legs and decided to hoof it back to camp.
Once we all got changed, fresh drinks in hand and a fire going, the conversations and stories started rolling. One of the best things about this trip was hearing everyones adventures. This evening, everyone tried to eat together. Some people cooked up loads of hot dogs, others made burritos. I had befriended a private chef (the fellow introvert) and helped her cook her food. I say help, she started the fire and prepped all of the food, and I loosely kept it going until an engineer came over and made the charcoals usable. I would surely die in the desert alone. The food by the way, was incredible! The second night was lit, both literally and figuratively. String lights were hung from an airstream, three campfires were started, s’mores were roasted, music was bumped, and the repeated thud of fabric bags hitting wooden boards from a solid game of corn hole filled the air. If I could go back to a single moment from this trip, this is exactly where I would go.
The following morning was filled with everyone sharing social media profiles and phone numbers while simultaneously cleaning up and packing their cars. It was a blissful yet somber morning. This one person from TikTok created a massive community of “outsiders” that has now become a family. With the amount of joy that came out of the last few days, everyone was dreading going home, and going back to work. All of us wanted nothing more than to stay in that desert camp site for another week. In fact, a small group of people carried on the journey for a few more days, traveling through Las Vegas and at the time of writing this, they are in Joshua Tree. Alas most of us had to go home that Sunday morning. We said our goodbyes and the group trickled out of the desert one by one. Back to reality I guess.
So, if you’re a fellow Outsider who missed this meetup, or are on the fence about going to the next one, take it from an introvert, this is the best decision you will ever make. Great views, good vibes, and incredible people. Thank you Outsiders Together.
A little shoutout to a few people.
Maddy - The Founder of Outsiders Together.
Dan - MY GUY!! The Engineer.
Megs - The Private Chef and my fellow Introvert.
Ibrahim - The Mountaineer and Burrito Guy.
Harrison - Deep Eddys for the win.
Till next time, y’all!
