Ryan Bunnell 31 posts 0 comments

Have you ever hitchhiked? It was long ago, but I used to hitch rides. I’m confident this will shock many who know my ‘reformed’ or ‘domesticated’ self today, but it’s an absolute truth and a defining milestone of my youth. Not only was I willing to stand on the side of the road, stick my thumb out, and hop into a vehicle driven by a stranger as a viable means of transportation, but I would also reciprocate the gesture when I had the wheels and fuel to wander. It was in just one of these instances that a benign conversation…

The human mind is fascinating. I marvel at how this wad of grey matter, with the subsequent spinal fluid and nerve network, encapsulates billions of individuals’ unique souls and personalities. As a hobbyist, I have dabbled with some light study of psychology and neurophysiology to understand self and core human interaction better. These fields are massive, with actively evolving comprehensions and theories of how and why. There are still many undiscovered facets of the mind that cannot be empirically quantified or defined.…

While I delight in all of the seasonal transitions, the deciduous trees of autumn make an undeniable impression and are impossible to ignore. With that notion, Northern Utah weather fluctuations are not for everyone. During our vernal and autumnal shifts, one can expect weather reminiscent of the heat of summer and the depth of winter in the same week. For September and October, this climactic quarreling produces stunning landscapes, where moody skies serve as a backdrop to the contrasting white of dusted snow on the cool,…

Utah state legislation grants certain powers to local government to create redevelopment agencies to facilitate new development and redevelopment of targeted areas. This tool is currently called a “Community Reinvestment Area (CRA)”. It involves using a portion of the property tax revenues (known as “tax increment”) generated by the renewal of the area to finance eligible redevelopment activities. Tax increment financing is a useful tool available in project areas to support redevelopment and can be used to offset certain…

In Utah, we celebrate the month of July a little differently. If you have lived in Utah for more than a couple of years, you will know about the near-month-long celebration from Independence Day to Pioneer Day. Liberty is a historically significant principle to the generational people of Utah. Citizens of the United States of America are familiar with the Revolutionary War and the celebrations surrounding the ‘Fourth of July.’ This Federal holiday commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence on July 4,…

Do you know what is hard these days? Believing in something. Believing in anything. I occasionally drift back to my time in kindergarten when I learned the Pledge of Allegiance and that George Washington cut down the cherry tree and physically could not tell a lie (which was, given my age, equally impressive to rumors of wooden teeth). I believed in our nation, our leaders, our future, the school principal, and my teachers, and I believed in the integrity behind the entire production. My ‘scratch and sniff’ sticker…

This past October marked my 20th year as a full-time resident and local businessperson of the Heber Valley. The changes over the past two decades in the Heber Valley will likely represent the most drastic pivot in our community’s history. With this milestone in mind, I find myself romanticizing the literal ‘History in the Making’ that I have observed during my time in the Heber Valley. In October 2003, the vibe in the Heber Valley was still a bit of a 2002 Olympic hangover. The community had expected a massive change in…

My relationship with aspen trees is a bit of a love–hate affair. I love them in the mountains. I hate them in suburban landscapes. The trees themselves are lovely. The round leaves make the most wonderful noises as they clip and rustle like organic coins colliding in a summer breeze. The airy light that passes through an aspen glade on a summer afternoon feels spiritual, calming, and edifying. I am perpetually fascinated by the flaming display that ignites the mountain landscape in autumn. Vernal emergence of their foliage…

We certainly get our fair share of bright and sunny days on an average summer in Northern Utah. As residents of the Heber Valley, our weather might be even a little nicer than surrounding geographies. Despite this wonderous and natural reality, all things community-minded in the Heber Valley are not always equally bright and shiny. If such a razzle-dazzle reality physically surrounds us, why is there room for such contention and discontent? Earlier in my life, I was heavily preoccupied with fly fishing and travel. It just…

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood never connected with me when I was a boy. As a child born in the mid to late 1970s, I saw plenty of opportunity, as the show was regularly broadcast and Public Television was still a thing. I endured many an episode, quite simply, because it was what was on the airwaves at that moment (streaming on demand was still a couple of decades out — hard to imagine, I know). It has taken me well into the middle-aged milestone of my journey and Fred Rogers’ passing to appreciate how inspiring and visionary…

With that clarity, it is possible to see your scenario through different eyes, as if a divine shroud, or “wall of illusion,” temporarily thins. I have had several such instances in my life, and I always take notice as I perceive these glimpses as a gift. The whole performance makes sense — just for that moment. While I was recently sitting in the construction traffic, southbound on the 40 from Park City, I had one of these moments. A cover of George Harrison’s masterwork, Within You Without You by Big Head Todd and The…

There has been far more change going around the Heber Valley than the weather over the past few months. The Heber Valley has an identity of being a quiet, pastoral community. While our natural resources are undeniably our most glaringly apparent assets, the citizens define the true essence of this community. Frequently in the advertising world, we talk about ‘market differentiators.’ The root of a successful launch or campaign will characteristically involve identifying what makes your product different from the rest of the…

Plan for the Worst, Hope for the Best As a Utah resident, I have come to cherish my desert time. I love the Glen Canyon and using Lake Powell to share the desert grandeur with my children, who are not of the age to go hardcore canyoneering. A handful of years ago, I led my family on a 4th of July adventure to the up-lake region of Powell. Given my predispositions to adventure, nature, and exploration — I charted a course to an area that the National Park Service issued warnings about due to low water. There is no cell…

Do we have any X-Files fans in the Heber Valley? I loved this sci-fi TV drama when it was airing. For the younger, binge and streaming-on-demand crowd — we used to have to wait until the program aired on network TV to view new episodes. I would count the days in anticipation. When that time arrived, I would make popcorn, turn off the lights and try to maximize the suspense and weirdness that each chapter seemed to unfold. All anticipation would build to a satisfying crescendo as the eerie and oddly low budget theme music and…

I live in a messaging world as a profession, and I will share a trade secret with you all. Top marketers identified this concept on Madison Avenue decades ago, and we now have a multi-generational hive of well-trained consumers as a byproduct. Products for consumption may include goods, services, and ideologies — all of which receive promotional support through sophisticated marketing efforts. The obstacle is that freethinkers are bad for business. It is far more advantageous to have a consumer base identifying with your…

I woke up this morning in a classic rock daydream. The tune echoing in my mind was ‘Your Move,’ from the 1971 release of The YES Album by the British prog-rock band, YES. I couldn’t justify a reason why this particular song should be forefront in my mind — so I took a moment to revisit it to see if, perhaps, there was something else there. Take a straight and stronger course to the corner of your life. Make the white Queen run so fast she hasn’t got time to make you wife. ’Cause it’s time, it’s time in time…

Being a teenager is rough. I certainly worked through my fair share of disillusionment during my run through the teen-to-early-adulthood years in my life. Reflecting on those years from my ‘present’ perspective can evoke some feelings of awkwardness. I would be willing to wager that I am not alone in the thought process: “if I could go back then knowing what I know now, I would do differently.” It wasn’t all bad, though. I remember numerous carefree days with no agenda. I remember walking through manicured park lawns…

A Fresh Approach to 2021

I am a stubborn individual. Many times I have pondered whether this character attribute is, in fact, a virtue or a vice. I can see how being persistent in certain circumstances has led me to personal success. I can also see instances where my refusal to alter a course has brought unnecessary hardship to my life. I suppose the answer lies somewhere within the fabled words of Kenny Rogers in that you need to “know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.” Life is a gamble these…

"Things are tough all over,” a phrase coined by a popular movie from the early 1980’s — but every bit as accurate today as it was then. Surrounded by a national economic crisis, social instability, and political unrest, I think it is crucial to acknowledge that this is not the first time that any of these things have happened in our great nation. If we look back at the pioneers that settled in the Heber Valley, we would recognize how difficult life was for them. An expression commonly used by these pioneers when…

By Ryan Bunnell Publisher, Heber Valley Life Magazine “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.” - Marcus Aurelius - ANXIETY. It is safe to say that every single one of us has processed this feeling in the past several months. This edition of Heber Valley Life magazine has been written and assembled in the middle of the Wasatch County ‘Stay at Home’ order for the COVID-19 pandemic. The continued and now amplified disruption of ‘normal’ to the Heber Valley has…

I have heard it popularly stated that by small and simple things – great things could be accomplished. Spring is a season where I feel this principle is illustrated quite clearly in nature. Consider the example of a small and seemingly insignificant seed, perhaps even invisible to the eye, that has been lying dormant under a blanket of organic cover and snow since autumn. As the snow melts and the temperature increases, that seed begins to germinate and comes to life. Within a relatively short window, that seed grows into a…

One of my all-time favorite science fiction stories centers around a dystopian future in the San Francisco of 2021. In Phillip K. Dick’s 1968 classic “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” Earth is suffering from the remnant radiation of a global nuclear war. All remaining life is cherished. Due to scarcity in the marketplace, possessing something like a house pet is prohibitively expensive while, at the same time, encouraged in a society that values life above all else. Thus, bending to the empathetic tendencies of…

I love taking nature walks with my children in the Heber Valley and the fall season is arguably one of the most favorable climates in which to do so. Sometimes we walk the Provo River trails and other times we head for higher ground on any of the numerous and growing trail systems along the benches of the valley. As the children explore, we discuss the taxonomy or identity of the various life forms on the walk. The children drink it up. I attempt to point out the unique characteristics of each plant and insect with…

One of my personal hobbies is styling and tending to bonsai trees. The overall goal behind the art of bonsai is to create a portable window into nature in the form of a potted tree. That tree, in miniature, should illustrate all of the characteristics of an ancient and venerated monument of endurance and survival as it may be found on the mountain itself. The discipline involves, initially, creating a design or a plan generated from careful observation of the natural characteristics of the tree. A good design will…

The transition from winter dormancy to tender spring awakenings has a soft spot in my heart. Our mountain desert environment is so harsh, and yet the most delicate and intricate flora and fauna have somehow become specialized enough to survive our seasonal transitions. The annual rebirth is a miracle in my eyes. When those frail and dainty, newly-emerged little shoots start to stick their heads out from the left-over blanket of expired vegetation of seasons past, I cannot help but think about their – albeit…

One of my favorite life moments is to wake up on a cold, crisp winter morning only to find that a new, deep layer of snow is covering the existing landscape. I love to gaze upon an unblemished field of light, fluffy powder. I adore that fresh coating of pure white; clinging to the trees and softening the rocky summit line of our surrounding mountain landscape — only noticeable after the clouds break and the light returns with all of its blinding clarity. I delight in how the snow drifts and covers everything that I once…

The autumn landscape is a perpetual sequence of change. Within a slight glimmer of time the heat of the high desert summer passes, days grow shorter, the landscape itself explodes with a celebration of color and morphs into a preparatory state suitable for the endurance of the season to come. As we assembled this volume of Heber Valley Life magazine I have seen a likeness between the autumnal transition and the condition of the Heber Valley. The Heber Valley stands in its own transitional period. The acknowledgement of…

In spite of previous efforts to manage the Jordanelle fishery, the stocked rainbow trout returns have been in a steady decline since 2004 and sit below the state averages in both creel and gillnet studies. The population of smallmouth bass is seemingly stable; however, these fish tend to experience an unexplained stunted growth rate after the age of two. The result of these two variables is that angler usage has decreased and citizens are not using this state-managed resource to its fullest potential. The Jordanelle…

The seasonal transition from spring to summer in the mountains is a magical time. The deciduous landscape itself morphs from sterile dormancy to a vibrant, colorful and delightful palate of texture and color. The air is scented with the fragrance of blooming flowers, the dampness of the river bottom and the crisp cleanness that drapes our mountain summits. Children can be found playing in the streets, riding bicycles and celebrating the open-ended freedom of long summer days with limited obligations. Yardwork commences and…

The secret is out on the Heber Valley. The growth is happening and we are going to get one shot at doing this right in our own respective lifetimes.