I had no idea what I was going to do today when I went to bed last night – I just knew I was whacked. So I decided to just get up when I felt like it and decide then. I woke up at about 6 a.m. and it was clear and beautiful – and since it has been quite warm during the day (high 90’s) since I’ve been here, I decided that it felt like a good day to tackle Upheaval Dome. Early.
While I was drinking my coffee, I realized I had a bunny staring in at me through the sliding glass door. He (he?) is cute – and I’ve seen him again since then… That answers my question about whether I could sleep with the door open – don’t think so!
I geared up and got to Island in the Sky so early they weren’t even open so I hung around the visitor center long enough to pay my entrance fee then headed for the crater. I stuffed a couple of pieces of beef jerky in my back pocket, filled up my water bottle and put on my horribly ugly closed-toe shoes (yes – the Keenes of Grand Canyon fame, which, incidentally, I wore on the Chesler Park hike yesterday and I was damned glad I did). The hike is described as a “short but steep” – but the payoff is exponential – you get to see the marvelously weird crater/dome/whatever – and you get to see the thousand-mile views. The La Sals to the east – the Abajos to the south – the Henry’s to the west – the Green River winding around at your feet – and the unfathomable, vast, nearly unexplorable wilderness of The Maze.
Kevin (my guide yesterday) described the three major districts of Canyonlands as follows – Island in the Sky is very masculine – big brash views, angular canyons, sheer drop offs; The Needles District is feminine – intimate, sumptuous, rounded, complex; while the Maze is like a 35-year-old female crack addict – beautiful but broken, extreme, unapproachable, impossible to fathom or tame. And, while I’ve never been fortunate enough to be in the Maze, based on everything I’ve read about it, Kevin pretty much nailed it. I keep taking really bad pictures of it – which is how I made the decision to go to the Needles this trip (formerly bad pix) – but now I can’t decide (for next time) between the Maze and the Great Gallery… Decisions, decisions.
I walked around all over the place – sat and just looked out for a while – took lots of pictures, then headed back down to my car. And – by the way, thank god for cairns! The park service builds rock cairns (little piles of rocks) where the trails cross slick rock and you can’t just obviously tell where you’re supposed to go. They’re very helpful and I know how to look for them now. I also learned that there is a superstition that if you knock over a cairn, even accidentally, you are doomed to seven years of bad sex. I do have conflicting points of view on this particular topic… but the eternal optimist in me doesn’t want to jinx anything!
Rant Alert: What is it about road-side wild flowers? I’m always suspicious when I see great swaths of flowers on the shoulder – but don’t see the same flowers more than 30 feet from the road, or anywhere in the surrounding landscape. You all know I am a flower nut and take way too many pictures of them, but it seems like cheating if I find out the UDOT (Utah equivalent of Cal Trans) is out there planting them… (end of rant, for now anyway)
You can spend the day driving and stopping and driving and stopping at all the overlooks at Island in the Sky. I know. I’ve done it. You can also kill yourself walking down into the canyon from several trailheads (which I haven’t done). And eventually, you settle in on a few of the overlooks as “favorites” – and today, I decided I wasn’t going to succumb to that nonsense (even though I did stop and take a picture of Candlestick Tower just because I couldn’t help myself, and I stopped at Grand View Point since I was already out there… but I saw a trail I’d never been on and decided to give it a whirl. It’s called the “White Rim Overlook” and since the White Rim is especially near and dear to my heart, and the trail was only 0.9 miles (each way) to the overlook (not DOWN into the canyon) I decided that was my next destination. I have to tell you – it is the best overlook on the whole east side of the Island in the Sky. The trail leads down a peninsula which gets narrower and narrower until you can see off both sides – Monument Basin and the Colorado River off the right – and the whole eastern side of the White Rim on the left, with the La Sals as a backdrop to the east and the Abajos to the south (yes again – but hey, this is my blog and I love both of those ranges so much I should become a cheerleader for the laccolithic ranges of the Colorado Plateau. Stop judging me.) The best part? I was the only one out there. I found an overhanging rock and lay on my back looking up at the sky (until I heard what sounded a little like a buzzard and decided I might look too much like lunch just laying there like that)… I made my leisurely way back – totally awestruck the whole way.
I noticed that there was a huge thunderhead forming over the La Sals, with big black sheets of rain obscuring the tops of the peaks – I had the caption written before I ever took the picture! “Looks like it might be raining in the La Sals” … tee hee – I stopped at the Shafer Trail overlook (another previous favorite) and took the shot. By then it was after noon and I was starvingly hungry. I was also incredibly dirty (since I just sort of fell into bed last night without really caring that I was filthy – and didn’t do anything about it this morning either… aren’t you glad I travel alone?). I decided to return to my cabin, get cleaned up then go into town and take myself out to lunch! I’m sure if anyone was watching, they would think there ARE two people living here – the sweaty grimy one who went into the cabin and the clean one who came out later…!
Moab has probably hundreds of great restaurants. I can name at least 10 that I love without even thinking about it too hard – but I went to Zax again – that’s twice that I’ve eaten in a restaurant, and twice that I’ve eaten there… and I haven’t even had pizza yet! Today I chose the spicy steak quesadilla which was delicious but the salsa was pretty bland so I asked for some Cholula and fix it!
Now, I’m sitting outside my cabin with my lawn-chair-desk, gazing at the La Sals and the afternoon thunderhead drama, listening to Chopin on my iPod, drinking a Ranger, writing about the trip, and about to embark into photo selection so that when the internet connection works in the middle of the night or very early tomorrow morning I can post all this stuff… I hope I don’t need to really say this – but I’m having a great vacation!!!!!!
p.s. – my legs feel like I’ve never exercised in my life – I guess all that rock-stair-climbing at 6000 ft. is a little different than four miles around the lake at just-over-sea-level??? I’d probably be dead in Butler Wash three days ago if I hadn’t been walking around the lake!!!
Moab Lynette 