More wow

Looking out the restaurant window, across from our campsite.

Just wow

Behind our campsite at Zion.

Angel's Landing

Ok, this is for Emil, who suggested this hike at Zion. This is Angel's Landing, the top part. At this point, looking at that peak, we're already maybe 1,000 feet up. You get to this part and think you're at the summit, but think again. Take a good look at this picture. See the little people at the bottom? To the left of them is a smooth place in the rock. That's where I watched two climbers hanging out. To do this climb, they have to sleep in sleeping bags hanging on the side of the cliff. You can't do it in one day. I'm not sure where they got to in this picture, but they were very tiny, even from way up where I was sitting. Also watched a condor soaring around me here.

Now the little people there just finished hiking across a very narrow little bridge of rocks (just rocks, nothing manmade) with sheer cliff drops on either side. After crossing the narrow part, you get to basically climb the peak. The route follows the line of trees on the right. No nice trail, no elevator. And no ropes! Except there are these nice bolted chains going up along the way. Rand did this. I really wanted to, but my walking stick and I waited at Scout's Landing, rocks on the cliff looking up at this big rock face. You really want both hands free to do this. From my vantage point, it was like watching an escalator full of little people up and down, up and down the thing all afternoon. It's amazing how many people do this. It's seriously dangerous. You want your footing in the right place, firmly. Rand said it was mostly college kids and they just bounded up and down.

Now to get to that part of Angel's Landing, you must first go here,


and here,

and here,

and here,

and here (see people on the right).

But NOT here.

Rand did it.

I did too, mostly.

The whole valley is like Land of the Lost. Always expecting dinosaurs, or a Sleestack to jump out at any time.

At the end, waiting for the shuttle. Tired.

Rocky Mountain walk

Going back in time and place now to the Rockies and my favorite walk. It began at a very popular spot, Bear Lake and went on a fantasy way of beautiful alpine lakes: Nymph, Dream and Emerald. It was at the end of September and cold cold. I began at 10am and put on all my winter gear, law even longjohns and scarf and winter hat. It was beautifully overcast and lightly raining and sleeting. Yes, this was my favorite walk, all alone and hardly anyone on the trail. The lakes were all small, little ponds really and so magical in the mist and sleet.


The first picture is at Dream Lake. The last one is at the top, Emerald Lake. I met a woman from Seattle and she told me that the peak behind me on the other side of the lake should have much more snow on it. She her husband come every year to hike in the Rockies and she was grieved to see it to bare.
In the white space to the right of the peak is a glacier which we couldn't see for the mist. I hope it remains there to be seen.

Changeability

Here is the view from our campsite in Torrey, two days in a row. And me, when the weather was passing by. The last shows the weather line, over our campground. Snow and hail on one side, blue sunny skies on the other.

People too

Now I've mostly shared the gorgeous landscapes round here, but that doesn't mean we've been hermits (although that was kind of part of the point of this exercise). At Natural Bridges, we shared a campsite with this great couple from Eugene, Oregon. It was a pleasure to have some younger people to speak to for a little while. It sounds like Oregon is just amazing, but of course there is the rain. Bunches and bunches of rain.


In Durango, we ran into the Durango Cowboy Gathering and listened to cowboy poetry and stories in the Strader Hotel on Main Street. After one of the shows, we went to the French cafe, had some wine and croissants and met one of the cowboys. He said he'd been to Chapel Hill several years ago and appeared on UNC-TV on a folkways show as a "cowboy ambassador".


I have to add the French cafe hostess too. She was just adorable, a freshman at Fort Lewis ("the College in the Sky"). She loves horses and wants to be an adventure guide when she grows up. I hope she does.

And in Walsenburg we got way off the tourist path and met these two. They're not a couple and in fact didn't even know each other. A possible future? She was our waitress at the Alpine Rose Diner on Main Street. Kept our coffee cups full.

He told us all about Cuchara the tiniest village where an old couple owned everything and kept St. Bernards in all the doorways in town, the Spanish Peaks and the campsites 10,500 feet up which we had almost to ourselves. Steinbeck said if you want to know what's happening, have breakfast in the local diner.

Utah fabulous

Well we're finally in Utah so it is as weird wonderful changeable wild rocky green yellow beige purple red ochre as I thought. And two months ago I didn't know I wanted to come here. Good thing I created this desire so I could fulfill it. This is one place that needs pictures.

We're spending a couple of nights in strange Torrey, outside the Capitol Reef national park. We went through at least a dozen different landscapes today. It changes about every 30 or 40 miles. Aliens from several different planets must have created Utah. We went through long open areas with scrubby low-to-the ground desert vegetation and red rock mesas and strange rock columns off in the distance. Then we would pass through the red rocks up close on each side of the narrow road, very little green. Then the rocks changed to beige and became what I called rock rubbish piles. Just piles of fallen rock everywhere. Rand figured I wouldn't like it because it was just too disorderly. Later it was flat again, then the rocks became white, then we hit Glen Canyon and it was spectacularly panoramic, over the Colorado. Which has been drained by Las Vegas, right? A ranger at Natural Bridges this morning told us that when the river dried up, so did the camping there. Later the land changed again to these large gray piles that we couldn't figure if they were rock or softer shale? They looked like piles of gravel for sale in a quarry. Then the turned lighter cream colored and finally were ringed in large purple circles, like tie-dyed rock piles. See how strange?



Oh, and there was this: