South by Southwest - Week 2: Utah

Utah is an amazing place – one I am incredibly happy to visit, but wouldn't want to live in. The air is dry and the sun is aggressively hot. Chapstick and sunscreen have become an essential element of self-care. Every morning begins with shivers and sweatshirts and ends in sweat, sunhats, and shorts. But the scenery – my God! – there is nothing like it. Around every turn in the road, past every hill on a hike, there is a new type of rock formation, a river or dry bed, a totally new variety of trees and shrubs. Tiny oak trees give way to tumbleweed, then juniper, then cactus. Dead and burned trees reach blackened claws toward the sky while ground squirrels dart into invisible holes, chased by an enthusiastic but clueless dog from Virginia.

We started in northern Utah, following the multi-state Dinosaur National Monument in from Colorado. We did see dinosaur fossils in Dinosaur, millions of years old and encased in cliffs of sandstone. But we also saw petroglyphs – ancient art created by people as much as 1,700 years ago. I'm not sure which was more exciting. Such a record of the passage of time in such a small area. 

After Dinosaur, we came back into Colorado to see the awe-inspiring Black Canyon of the Gunnison, which several friends had recommended. As it turns out, Joe has a friend, retired Western Organization of Resource Councils organizer Kevin Williams, in nearby Montrose. We found a free BLM* campground on a hill overlooking the city, and availed ourselves of Montrose's services (oil change for the van, groceries for us, riverside trail walk for Nash) on Tuesday morning. We had a delightful lunch with Kevin and his wife, Brenda, followed by an afternoon at Black Canyon, which was definitely worth the trip. The following day, we spent a couple of hours at a Montrose laundromat and then the Ute Indian Museum (highly recommended!) before heading back to Utah. 

And now we are in a free National Forest campground up 12 steep, rocky, sandy, narrow, grueling miles from Moab. It is beautiful. At the edge of the campground, cliffs look over a secret, hidden valley dotted with weird rock formations. Ravens fly so close we can hear the sound of their wings moving through the air. We have no internet (I will be posting this tomorrow from Moab). We took a long hike with Nash yesterday in Grandstaff Canyon, involving numerous creek crossings, which Nash navigated better than we did. We spent the afternoon at Arches National Park, admiring nature's handiwork and marveling at the shapes formed by wind and water. Tomorrow, Sunday, we head southwest, toward Canyondlands and Capitol Reef National Parks. 

How long will we stay in Utah? Only the weather app knows. We have five more weeks of wandering before we head back home to Virginia. We hope to get to Nevada, California, Arizona, and New Mexico before then, but only time will tell. 

A dinosaur femur fossil encased in the cliff

The road to the petroglyphs was closed for grading, so we had to walk. 

Nash decided he had walked far enough, but we still wanted to see them.

On the hill above Montrose as a storm rolls in

Nash is getting stronger and hiking farther these days.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison – with some welcome graffiti

Admiring the Black Canyon. You could hear the rushing water from the bottom.

The tiny post office in Bedrock, Colorado, didn't have any postcard stamps.

Hiking Granstaff Canyon

The creek would have been easier to cross using Nash's method. 

This formation is called "Three Gossips", but I see three wise women.

I stopped to take the picture because the one on the right reminded me of statues we saw in Egypt. Then we noticed the climbers about 2/3 of the way up. Zoom in and see if you can find them. 

Arch

The road to the campground

*Bureau of Land Management – federally-owned land used for recreation, logging, grazing and oil and gas drilling.