Another Campfire Story from Joshua Tree: The Truth about the Roswell UFO Crash

 

Some stories refuse to stay buried.

Roswell is one of them.

Not because of what we think happened—but because of how the story itself has behaved ever since.

In 1947, the U.S. military first announced the recovery of a “flying disc,” only to immediately walk it back and call it a weather balloon. Over the decades, the explanation kept changing: Project Mogul, crash test dummies, misremembered events. But instead of clarifying the truth, each version only made the story messier.

And that’s the part that matters.

Roswell isn’t just about what may have crashed.
It’s about how institutions respond when they lose control of a narrative.

Rapid military involvement.
Sudden reversals.
Classified projects.
Witnesses who never stopped talking.

Roswell became the template—not for UFOs, but for how UFO stories are handled.

Out here in Joshua Tree, we tell these stories the way they were always meant to be told—like campfire stories. Not to prove anything. Not to debunk anything. But to sit with the mystery, the patterns, and the questions that won’t go away.

Because some stories don’t want to be solved.
They want to be remembered.

⬇️ Watch the full Joshua Tree Encounters long-form episode below.

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Joshua Tree Encounters tells the stories of UFOs, high strangeness, and the things that refuse to stay buried.

The Long Way Back: Week 2 Recap

 

I started at 270 lbs.
Today, January 17, I’m at 261.2 lbs.

That’s almost a pound a day this early in the journey. A great start—with an important caveat: a lot of this is water weight. I didn’t fully remove carbs, but I significantly scaled them back. I also haven’t started tracking calories or macros yet. Honestly, I didn’t feel like adding that mental load right away.

For the past 10 days, I’ve kept it simple:
• 10,000 steps daily
• More vegetables for fiber
• Removed starches from my plate (rice, potatoes, bread)
• Cut out chips and most snacks
• Kept one small piece of chocolate after meals

Lifting weights at least 3x per week is non-negotiable. That’s my anchor. Especially during a calorie cut, preserving muscle is critical.

I haven’t been counting protein, but I’ve significantly increased it and added one shake per day.

This is a marathon. Not a sprint.
I’m intentionally easing into it to reduce stress and make it sustainable.

On to Week 3.

Another Campfire Story from Joshua Tree: The Travis Walton Abduction

 Out here in the desert, stories have a way of traveling differently.

They don’t rush.
They don’t shout.
They drift.

Passed from one voice to another, across campfires, across late-night drives, across long silences where the stars feel closer than the ground beneath your feet.

Tonight’s story is one of those.

The case of Travis Walton.

In 1975, Walton was part of a logging crew in Arizona. As they were driving home one evening, they claimed to see a strange, glowing object hovering above the road. Against everyone’s instincts, Walton got out of the truck and approached it.

Then, according to all accounts, he was struck by a beam of light.

And he disappeared.

For five days, Walton was missing. His coworkers were interrogated, suspected of murder, and publicly scrutinized. Polygraph tests were administered. The media swarmed. The story spiraled.

And then… he came back.

Walton claimed he had been taken aboard a craft. That he encountered beings. That he was examined. That he was confused, disoriented, and afraid. He said he didn’t understand what had happened to him — only that it had happened.

Whether you believe his story or not, the ripple it created is undeniable.

This wasn’t just a UFO sighting.
It was a missing person case.
With witnesses.
With timelines.
With consequences.

That’s why it’s lasted.

Out here in Joshua Tree, stories like this hit differently. The desert already feels like a place where the rules thin out. Where silence stretches. Where people have always told stories to explain what they couldn’t name.

And that’s what this is really about.

Not proving what Travis Walton saw.
Not debunking what he said.
But asking why stories like this stay alive.

Why we keep returning to them.
Why they still get told around fires.
Why they still make us look up.

Maybe it’s because these stories don’t offer answers.

They offer possibilities.

And sometimes, that’s enough.

This has been another campfire story from Joshua Tree.

If you stayed this long, thanks for sitting with it.