A Breath of Fresh Colorado Air

 Riding Ever Eastward

It turned out that Moab was a surprisingly delightful town with a large dose of hippy trippy coexisting with the grinding Mormon monotony.  As we drove into and out of town multiple times we commented on a Federal Project identified (as so often they are) only by a series of letters which shed no light on what it was about.  At each passing we would say, "We should Google that and find out what it is."  But we didn't.  Well, until we were leaving town for the last time.  It was then we found out that it was a very large federal effort to clean up an abandoned uranium mine (company went bankrupt of course) that was leeching uranium into the ground water.  Good God!  And those Moabians were drinking that?! As we traveled the West we were once again reminded of all the "good" the government had done in those virgin lands in terms of "resettling" the indigenous, abandoning mines (think Butte) and testing fun atomic weapons.  There is much to atone for. Truly.

The topography of Southern Utah is really fascinating.  You can be in a deep river canyon hemmed in on both sides by rubbly cliffs and five minutes later be traversing flat dessert stretching to the horizon.  After about an hour and a half of bouncing in an out of contrasting landscapes we encountered the town of Rifle Colorado.  Yes, Rifle.  Home of that intellectual wonder of a legislator Lauren  Boebert.  While tempted to drop into the bar/restaurant frequented by the pistol packing Mama we feared we would not emerge intact so we ambled on.  Lauren is probably best known for her outspoken loathing of anything L.G.B.T. not to mention the swath of humanity identifying as Democrats.  It was hard to confine myself to one example of Lauren's  warped world view but let's try this tweet: " A North Carolina preschool is using L.G.B.T. flashcards with a pregnant man to teach kids colors."  Can you see any reason to doubt that?  It turns out, much to my niece Shannon's chagrin, that Boebert is her Congresswoman.  When I asked her about the Boebert situations she said, "OMG, even the people in Rifle hate her.  She has to switch districts to an even more unhinged location to get back in Congress."    Enough about that. 

We were staying in Glenwood Springs which is famed for its hot springs.  The plan was to meet up with the Meyers clan for two evenings on our whirlwind tour.  Meet up #1 was derailed by technology in which my voicemail to Shannon was mysteriously not delivered for 22 hours, but night #2 was a delight as we joined three of the four Meyers for a gabfest and pizza.  Dave teaches at The Colorado Rocky Mountain School which is an idyllic private school set in pastoral splendor bordering the confluence of the Colorado and  Green Rivers.  We toured the campus which featured orchards, airy classrooms, a blacksmithing facility and a variety of extracurricular offerings that made me yearn to attend as their oldest, living student.  Shannon is Executive Director of an organization that is currently building a multimillion dollar shelter for abused survivors of domestic abuse.  She is one hell of a fundraiser.  We learned of their plans to wrap up the fundraising and teaching aspects of their careers and move on.  Current plans include the possibility of moving to Bhutan (the world's happiest country) for a stint of international teaching and mountaineering.  Our family is nothing if not interesting. Of course, they too were planning on attending a Rolling Stones Concert in Denver.

The Meyers: From left to right Cassidy, Dave, Shannon & Toby

We lounged for a day at the Iron Mountain Hot Springs, dipping from pool to pool surrounded by majestic mountains and the lulling vibe of New Age Music.  We were so relaxed that we failed to take photos.  Your imaginations will have to kick in on this one.  Now it was time to retrace our steps back across Southern Utah to see two more National Parks.

How Many Canyons are Too Many?

Back we went -- through Rifle, through the desert, beside the ever present Colorado river to Canyonlands National Park.  It was at this point that I began to suffer from Canyon Fatigue.  To Michael's photographic eye the landscape revealed ever new and exciting aspects of light,  perspective and color.  To me everything looked glaringly repetitive.  This "overreach" is an enduring facet of our travels.  If three parks are good then four has to be even better.  If one church has interesting details imagine how many more details we could absorb by viewing six churches.  Generally Michael relents when I begin to twitch and scream but due to non-refundable hotel  reservations it was decided to soldier on.  I'll let you decide from the following photos which camp (new and exciting vs. just more rocks) you belong to.

Two mesas.

It is interesting to see the flat ground suddenly disappear into the canyons. The Green River is to the right in the middle of the frame vertically.

A closer view of the Green River still forming canyons on its path to the Colorado River.

You can see the dry creek beds where the water flows when it rains and eventually empty into the canyon and into the Green River.

The clouds cast interesting shadows on the landscape below.

I started my photography in black & white and decided to show the effect of taking two color photographs and converting them to black & white.

More hoodoos in these next three photos.

Occasionally in our travels we come across something strange & amusing. Outside of Moab by the interstate we came across Jackass Joe's Twilight Zone.

So, we are on to the next to last leg of the journey.  Next we venture to the heart of polygamist Mormonism and the wilds of Kolob Canyon.  Stay turned.