Last days in Moab

My last few days in Moab were exactly what I was seeking. Hot, scorchingly hot, but full of excitement, adventure and wondrous sites. No photos can accurately show the vastness panorama that is the view from Dead Horse Point - hand up to shield from the sun to gaze upon escarpment upon escarpment in a never ending staircase of time as far as one can see. Look down into fathomless depths of time, see the white rim, entrenchment within entrenchment, gorge within gorge. Twisted pines give shade to lizards and snakes, while tourism is organically controlled and as fully-informative as ever. I wished I were younger and fitter, and could explore the labyrinth of canyons and cracks hidden away in a secret dimension. I could stay there for weeks and still have more to see and explore. My photos were a bit disappointing but the memories are vivid and focused.

On the way to Grand View Point, we passed on to the "Island in the Sky" This, in evolutionary terms, won't exist much longer as the road passes through a narrow isthmus with steep slopes on each side. Nature will, of-course win, and bridges will be built. I stopped at practically every viewpoint in my desperation to see everything, every layer, every nook and cranny. I was intoxicated with the place - just one more view, just one more photo, just one more for the road!

The narrow pass onto the 'Island in the Sky'.

My last park was Arches. I was SO glad I chose to visit at sunset. The park was bathed in golden light and the rocks looked as if they were on fire. I went on a small tour - the guide was brilliant and explained the geology and ecology of the region brilliantly. He encouraged me (not the fittest of souls) to make a real effort and climb up to the last arch as he had timed it to co-incide with sunset. I puffed a bit but made it. I sat alone with my thoughts, a blissful moment. Hard to imagine that my holiday was nearly over.....

 A final jet boat ride up the Colorado and a night time light display on the canyon walls. Time to go home. I absolutely loved every minute of this amazing adventure and can't wait to come back one day.

Towards Moab

The first thing I did today was read the papers.......

(They were just a little out of date)

Another day of geological wonders and awesomeness. The nearer to Moab I got, the more the excitement rose. I got just a little taster today on quite a big detour down a huge canyon (Indian Creek)  to see 'The Needles." All of these places are so satisfying to visit, not just because of what you see, but also because of the high quality information always provided. Plaques, display boards and wayside posters. Visitors' Centres with exhibits, films shows, rangers and guides and endless shelves of information and books. It's a huge learning experience, too. Everything is explained. Anything can be identified. This SO appeals to my left-sided brain.......

Can you see 'The Wooden Shoe'?

The Needles

Indian Creek

Journey into the hot, dry desert.......

When I visited Monument Valley the year before, everything was as I had expected - dramatic landforms, memories of John Wayne and herds of cattle and horses, amazing skylines and a feeling of insignificance against all this power from the past. Other things were not so predictable. The weather was awful - a cold front had moved in, bringing a dark, menacing sky and biting wind. We were on a small tour bus, getting up at six in the morning in our lovely hotel in Sedona (most fantastic place anywhere but don't go there if you don't like red)  - the driver/guide must be up there on the list of 'most boring commentaries ever given' His voice droned on and on throughout the journey, mostly uninteresting snippets from his life on the VERY edge of the glamorous film world (I think he walked their dogs!) - and full accounts of the geology of the area - I would normally be very excited and interested but in his hands, he made the great land movements, mountain folding and the coming and going of mighty seas and oceans as interesting as my grandmother's accounts of her knitting circle days.

This whole area is not the United States at all. Anywhere past the edge of the road belongs to the Navajo nation, and as such it is a precious and interesting area. Quite rightly, the Navajo want to protect their land and their people. But this makes for a very bad marriage with the tourist trade! We were lucky - we managed, almost wrecking the people carrier, and bouncing like pebbles in a tin can, to get to the end of the rutted track to see a few very sad native people, a very tired horse and wonderful landscapes. Other tourists, including thousands of Japanese in coach parties, were ushered onto very old, converted trucks on hard seats and given plastic macs (the kind that went out in the sixties), as some sort of feeble protection against the wind, and, by now, freezing, driving rain. I felt so sorry for them - it must have been an unforgettable experience for all the wrong reasons.

Dust devils at Monument Valley

Valley of the Kings

On this journey it was so different. Baking hot, dusty and a hot, dry wind lifting sand and dust. I thought I was in the Sahara.....Then I spotted a mini-tornado, a dust devil, twirling its way across the scrub. Later in my travels, in the very heart of Portugal in August, I was to see much the same thing. A sudden gust of wind and much shaking of trees in one very specific spot, a howling noise, then great tufts of dried grass and hay twirling high in the sky above - lasting only a minute or two but very dramatic. I drove on and on, through the valley, but then passed another intriguing place. I didn't have time to explore - but I will do one day. From the road, in the heat haze. I could see great stacks of red and orange rock, golden cliffs, and a sense of mystery so tangible that I could feel it a couple of miles away. It is called 'The Valley of the Kings.' It's on the list.....

After a long but glorious day, I finally arrived in the small but perfect settlement of Bluff, back in Utah - an oasis in the desert. At first unpromising, but with a historic cavalry fort, amazing restaurant and Navajo Trading post (Twin Rocks, very suggestive formations...), I couldn't believe my eyes when, opposite my lodge hotel, was a sign welcoming me to a coffee shop with, yes, EXPRESSO coffee. Also with an amazing array of Indian crafts, local artists' paintings, sofas and all kinds of quirky stuff. The guy said the mighty Eric Clapton came there to buy stuff! An oasis indeed. I still found it hard to believe that the best part of the trip...was yet to come!!!

COFFEE!!!!!!

My bedtime reading!

Journaling to Bryce and Zion

So the journey continued to tourist-packed Bryce Canyon. Not as tacky as Niagara Falls (see a later blog when I write about these!) but the worst side of US culture in abundance with huge, characterless hotels, vast tourist shops full of junk and a very false novo-cowboy style which just doesn't work. BUT, on escaping this heaving mass, I made for Bryce Canyon National Park, following the instructions from a DVD I'd bought from one of the many excellent Visitors' Centres (full of information and manned by helpful local rangers) which was brilliant, and guided me all around.

Red Rock Canyon 

There are few words to describe the colours and shapes here on a hot sunny day. The sky is an impenetrable blue, the golden oranges and yellows of the row upon row of rock stacks  like organ pipes gleam like tangerine neon, there is a feeling of inexplicable beauty and wonder here. This place is magical. It should be on everyone's bucket list. Miles and miles of oceans of spires and steeples, pine and juniper trees clinging with tenacity, bright buttons of vivid green against the complimentary orange. Deep shady canyons, hikers like tiny Lilliputians strolling through the cool depths.  This is erosion at its most awesome. I took a zillion photos.

Journalling on this sort of trip is hard. Ideally, I would love to pause and draw endless views, trace rock strata, capture the colour of the sky. But I just haven't got the energy for this, too. Everything goes into just BEING there. So I filled the journal with maps, pages of geology, notes, photos and memories as well as accounts of the day, people, conversations and funny moments and so on. Now that I am at home, these photos inspire me to create art, to make big visual journals, to paint and draw. They fill my mind with endless possibilities - I am still working on the talent side.........

               

Zion was totally different. Imposing, white-capped peaks tower high into the sky above. At Bryce you are at the top - here you are at the bottom.....I gave the packed tourist buses (no other cars allowed) going up into the canyon a miss and opted for a sunset safari - a hair-raising jeep drive up onto the top of the plateau to watch the sun hit the distant rocks in a concerto of pinks and purples, surrounded by wild turkeys and (apparently) aggressive, rabies-plague-laden squirrels. Another white-knuckle ride down a tiny track, hurtling towards the core of the earth did not allow for much appreciation of the scenery but it was fun. I loved my hotel here - set in the valley with lovely gardens, bright flowers and hummingbirds visiting the water feeder on my balcony and met some lovely people whom I hope to visit one day soon in the great cafe next door.

The peaks of Zion

 The next day I had to leave, heading south in ever more arid landscapes on and on into Arizona...... 

My lovely hotel right in the canyon- room on the end, first floor

Capitol Reef and Toothache

 I loved Capitol Reef. But even more I love the open road. Me, a car and a feeling of total freedom, a forgetting of all worries and just the exhilaration of the ride. I was well into the rural outback when I stopped off at this little cafe - we chatted and they asked me to stay on for another hour or two because they loved my accent!

Capitol Reef may not be the most grandiose of Utah's parks, but I loved it. How can one place be so panoramic and vast, yet feel cosy and accessible at one time? The biggest plus was the absence of other tourists. All the other places were packed but here it was peaceful and solitary. The geology was still stunning, the baked earth and ochre colours lived up to my expectations and I even managed to get in some good bird watching with advice from the local naturalist. My kind of heaven -  a lasting memory will be sitting in front of the old Mormon homestead, eating home-made ice-cream, watching cowbirds, Say's Phoebe, and mule deer in the sunshine. Bliss. I guess I love solitude....

But very good moments must have their balance. For every positive it seems there must be an enormous negative. Let me state here and now that I know I have just a few, awful teeth. I am the person your parents use as an example of someone who didn't look after her teeth. I did come prepared with some, I thought, strong Portuguese antibiotics. But they weren't a match for the maple syrup pancakes at breakfast the next day. Capitol Reef on my doorstep and only 24 hours left there. What did I have to do? Give in to the awful fact that the toothache wasn't going to go away. Lay on the bed and feel that familiar pain spreading around my cheeks and jaw.

Say's Phoebe

By the evening, I knew I had to act and went to reception of my Great Western hotel. They were kind and caring. Did lots of ringing round. Eventually I was dispatched to the Tooth Ranch a couple of villages up the road. Then came surely one of the worst pain experiences of my life up to now...I won't go into detail but it HURT. The cruel-to-be-kind dentist scoffed at my meds and gave me something stronger 'for the road' - for I was venturing even further into the outback. The ordeal was over. I was back going towards Highway 12, with vistas of the Grand Staircase Escalante - where the history of the planet reveals itself in coloured steps in vast horizons of pinks and oranges. I realise now why I never put on weight when I am traveling (as opposed to the present forced sedentary lapse).....I am constantly getting in and out of the car to take photos. Thousands of them. Every one worth it.

New Beginnings.....

This long, grey winter continues and is getting everyone down. I am living through one of the worst generators of stress...trying to sell a house and land. So stressful that I have lost my creative muse for several days now but want to keep busy. I have finally decided to act on the huge sign on my cork notice board above the computer "DO BLOG". It's also a chance to relive some of my better adventures during the last year - and to look at some of the journalling I've been doing. I can't imagine travelling now without my journal - it's a record of not just what I do and see - but a chronicle of people, of interactions, of kindnesses and conversations. So where to resume?

Maybe with a journey. A fantastic journey all alone into the wilds of Utah to see landforms and landscapes - twin loves in my life. Beautifully planned out and mapped by my travel agent, a car was waiting for me at Salt Lake City airport and I arrived at a very upmarket hotel downtown. With one day to sightsee, the decision wasn't hard. Temples and Mormons or craft stores and art galleries?.....The amazing concierge prepared a whole list for me of ideas for art stores, craft stores and all sorts for me to visit.
Above is just one wonderland for detailed exploration......

The mountains around Salt Lake City were spectacular, real peaks with snow in June. I love to see how the tree species change with altitude, leading to a sea of greens of every hue. In my journal, I wrote, 'The spruce look like church spires in a lime-green aspen sea'. Every road was prepared for an amateur geologist such as I - information boards at every lay-by explaining rock formations and types in detail. I just soak these things up and go into some sort of uber-excited dream state of heightened happiness. Days like that day should never end. Back to Salt Lake City - as clean and hygienic as Donny Osmond's teeth, twice round the square to look at the tabernacle, then a picnic supper in my posh hotel bedroom....I'll resume the blog tomorrow, too!