I spend my days in depressions
Flat, empty, mostly long
Valleys
With washtub-rim mountains
On all sides
Lined by ancient markers
Levels of lakes,
Now lost
To the hardpan:
Alkali, flat, playa
Cracked, broken earth
But I find
That in emptiness
My desert
Has taken on the nature
Of being whole
Here the whole valley
A basin
Lies out in the sun
Visible and tangible to my eye
And I, walking
Fail to find an end
To the peace
That has filled this place
August 1, 2021
Otto De Groff has spent most of his life living in Utah. As a young man, Otto’s father often took him (along with his brothers) to western Utah, where they spent days exploring, hiking, and rockhounding. These experiences gave Otto a rooted respect and love for Utah’s wild places, especially those found along the state’s western edge.
After serving an LDS mission in Mexico, Otto studied at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation. Currently, Otto is pursuing a master’s degree at BYU in the same field, with a special emphasis on bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D. K. Bailey) forest ecology and variation in growth rates of these trees through time. While studying at BYU, Otto met and married his wife, Maddie, who is from St. George, Utah. They live together with their son, Ferris, in Utah Valley.