Utah, Part 1

The entrance into Utah did not, again, give me a new state. For those who have been following since the beginning, you'll recall on Leg 1 we connected US-50 with I-70 in Utah on our way home, stopping quickly at Arches NP.

I wanted to give Utah adequate time (at the time, I had no idea what that meant), but I also had the first date I had to meet (had should really be wanted to). My parents were taking a trip to Las Vegas, while my best friend was flying to the same city a day after my parents left to join me on a 12 day loop in Nevada, Arizona and California. So I had about 3.5 days. Here's what I did.

Arches National Park
Arches sits just below I-70 between US-191 and UT-128. US-191 is recommended; it is the fastest way to get into the park. But I had already been on that road, and UT-128 was dotted ("scenic").

It was a good choice. The road wound and wove; it rose and fell; it twisted and turned. It did so with the change in landscape (as opposed to grading the road for maximum speed); so I couldn't move to fast (i.e., why it is not recommended as a means to reach the park quickly. But a few miles in it enters a bright red canyon alongside a river. Because it was only a two-lane road, the shear walls of the canyon rose a few feet away from the car on one side or the other, depending on which side of the river I was driving. I thought, Wow, this road will definitely compete for my "Best Drives" list. Here's a photo (don't worry, Mom, I got out of the car to take this one).

I reached the park later than I wanted to the morning of Day 20 (August 4). I had planned to squeeze Arches NP and Canyonlands NP into the same day. So I didn't have a lot of time in the park. Therefore, what I tried to do was drive the 14-mile road quickly and take photos of a different perspective than my visit a month before. Depending on the sun's location, this park can be extremely photogenic (not sure my adverb choice works there). It's easy to photograph. So I wasn't all that impressed with mine.

Leaving the park within 2 hours of entering was bittersweet. The paper in my left hand read, This park deserves at least an entire day, if not two, while my right hand's paper read, The next park is Canyonlands, another new park! And you are going to come back here some day. And I will; and I'll tell you why later.

So I moved on to Canyonlands NP.

Canyonlands National Park
I'm sorry if you feel there is a gap here, I had to take a break. I just got off the phone with Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. The conversation went something like this:

Redwing41 (R): Hello, this is [redacted].
Stevie (S): Hi there [redacted], this is Steven Spielberg.
R: That's hilarious.
S: No, I'm serious.
R: Okay.
S: Listen, I'm sorry to hear about your right arm.
R: It was the left, Stevie.
S: Yes, my mistake. I keep mixing you up with-
R: I know; it's fine.
S: Well anyways, I just wanted to say I'd like to make a movie out of your story.
R: Go on.
S: I'm not sure how good it can be. For one thing, you told people where you were going to be. For another, You realized no one would find you anyways, so you only waited 41 hours. For a third, you had a real Leatherman. And for a fourth, we'd have to find a better actor than James Franco. But I think I can do it.
R: Okay.
S: The only problem is it definitely won't be considered the best film of the year because I heard Aaron Sorkin is writing an intentionally-fictionalized-yet-still-entertaining story of Google Plus. And he got Justin Timberlake; AGAIN!

In case you are concerned, my left arm is still in tact. What I can say about the park is as much of an idiot as Aron Ralston is, it's really fun to climb around on the rocks in Canyonlands.

The park is divided into four sections, but really only two of them, The Island in the Sky and The Needles, are easily accessible. And even with the accessibility of these two sections, the main attraction to the park is its backcountry experience. You have to travel outside the park for 2+ hours to get from one to the other; none of the sections are connected within the park.

I knew this going in, and I knew I was pressed for time. And after hearing how great Bryce Canyon and Zion are, I wanted to get there sooner than later. So, what I decided to do was to visit The Island in the Sky then move on and try to find some camping (I had read in my bible camping fills by mid-morning).

The road into the park was pretty, but nothing like the trip into Arches. In fact, The Island in the Sky is basically a large prairie. It's interest to visitors lies in its overlooks into The Needles section.

When I got there, it was relatively deserted (to my surprise, considering how crowded Arches is). Here's some perspective: Arches is closer to The Island in the Sky than The Island in the Sky is to The Needles, but Arches had 1,014,405 visitors last year while Canyonlands as a whole had 435,908. I equate this simply to Arches having the benefit of acting both as a destination park as well as a pass-through park (proximity to the interstate).

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but when a park road is a spur and not a loop, I like to drive to the end and work my way backwards. That way I decided what looks like the coolest things to do, and I can judge my time much easier. However, of all the parks set up like this, my bible suggested this type of route for Canyonlands, but had not for any of the other parks (yet). I thought it must be a really good starting place then.

It was.

That was a zoomed-in view of the overlook named Grand View. By this point in my trip, I can't say I was tired of overlooks, but I wasn't so excited for them anymore. That is why this one caught me by surprise. There's that word (not love), Breathtaking. I forgot the word meant a real thing; I had been using it as a synonym to really cool or awesome. But I lost my breath for a moment standing at Grand View.

There are only five simple tasks you need to continually perform to stay alive.

So I started breathing again. But I couldn't move; I just stood in that spot for 10 or 15 minutes before taking a photo. Now I know the photo doesn't look like much but that's what happens at overlooks sometimes. The panoramic of it should be pretty good.

I was going to show you this photo while pointing out the lines the stormwater takes. Then I got to another overlook and read the plaque which told me it is a road. Look to the right of the canyon, you'll see it. About the time Moab, UT began flourishing, people moved into the Canyonlands area to mine. That is where many of roads like this come from. The park service is leaving many of these roads turn back into wilderness landscape. the problem is, when you destroy a desert plant, it's not guaranteed to return. Many of these plants only have the opportunity to germinate every handful of years. These roads will be here for a long time.

Guess what moved me out of The Island in the Sky? Correct. So I began driving down US-191 toward Capitol Reef NP, looking for a campsite. That's when I saw this. I found it hilarious at the time. Not only is the rock painted and pointing to a hole in the rock, but it's written HOLE N" THE ROCK. The cleverness of leaving an I out is downplayed when you aren't sure what to replace it with. But it was a good try; it is Utah, after all.

What I failed to mention earlier is that The Island in the Sky still had camping available (to my surprise). But that put my too far away from where I wanted to be on Day 21. Plus there was a thunderstorm. But I thought, What the heck, I still have time today, why not check out The Needles section. If it would have not had camping, at least I still would have seen something new and cool.

But they did have camping and it should easily make the best campsites list. Here is a view looking just one way from the site. I was setting up my tent and then looked to my left. There was a giant rock formation that looked easily climbable. So I jumped up, and kept going, and kept going. Soon enough, I had an entire 360 panorama from the campsite. It was incredible. Here's me the next morning, somewhat happy about that climb.

I went to fill up on water and dilly-dallied just a bit. When I was over near the toilet, I read a posting (No!) that said the number one natural killer in Utah in lightning. And sure enough a storm was close by. I learned what to do in such a storm. Glad I know how to read.

But I took so much time that when I came back, the sun was setting. And it was beautiful. So I took some photos from the campsite; but then I climbed back up on the giant rock. The combination of the setting sun and the active storm helped me capture this, perhaps the best photo I've taken to date. It was rewarding, not just because I was in the right place at the right time, but because I really had to work at this photo. I was at that tree for 10 or 15 minutes playing around with camera settings until I finally got it right.

Exploring the park the next morning, I stopped near the end of this road and parked behind a white van. I was walking around for a few minutes then looked up and saw a park ranger behind my car with its lights on. I shrugged and kept taking photos. So she turned on her siren. Then I returned to the park. She said, "Can you see this?" and pointed to the ground.

I said, "No, hang on, let me find my magnifying glass." Then I realized No Parking was written in white, 12-point, Arial font on the side of the road. She told me RVs can't turn around and my car would get hit. I said, "Usually I look for yellow lines, or a sign saying I can't park." She told me they are working on getting a sign. So I held my comment about how you can make a sign with a dead tree's branch and a piece of paper and about how she is a pretend police officer.

Newspaper Rock
After leaving the park, I came across Newspaper Rock. There were a few people there, and this guy in his fifties says the following, in a redneck accent:

Last time I came here was 30 years ago. You was able to walk right up then. But they done moved her back. They had ta; them hippies kept coming up here and drawing peace signs on it.

I knew it was going to be a good day.

Utah Album

Next Post: Utah, Part 2