cayons at their best

We left Friday morning and drove to just west of middle-of-nowhere-Utah. The drive was absolutely beautiful through canyons and red cliffs and over washes and, with the help of satellite radio, we had great bluegrass with us the whole way. We were on the trail by 1pm and hiked out over a flat, gently rolling red-sand area for a few miles and then dropped the 200 feet or so into The Canyon from the southern rim. The sandstone canyon twisted and turned and had all kinds of cool rock formations from lots of little holes, like swiss cheese, to big alcoves where we could climb up and sit, to super narrow slots, to wide open areas with different colors of sandstone marbled together. It’s simply amazing what wind and water can do to stone. I was in awe at every turn of the canyon floor. On our hike up the canyon we saw a beautiful panel of petroglyphs carved into a dark varnished area. After a few hours of hiking in the canyon we looked for a route up and out and found one out to the northern rim and by sunset we had found a perfect camping spot, on flat sandstone, facing south over a small tributary canyon and toward Jacob’s Chair (a tall red butte formation sticking up prominently up out of the desert.) After we found a water pocket and made dinner, we sat on the sandstone watching as the last light disappeared. Since it was nearly a new moon and there wasn’t an ounce of light pollution, the stars were absolutely gorgeous. I must have seen 7 shooting stars the hour we sat there.

After not a quite complete night’s sleep (I woke up at 2am and had to force myself out of my sleeping bag and all it’s warmness to go pee…not fun when it’s 20 degrees!) we were up with the sun and on to a whole day of exploring the canyon and it’s tributaries. We found some amazing slots which we had to wedge our way through, some lush seeps with fresh pools of water and fresh green plants, some more beautiful pictographs, and all kinds of rock formations. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm and still and we were wearing t-shirts. Mid afternoon we had to find a way out of the canyon toward camp….if we couldn’t find a way out it would have been a long 5 hours of backtracking to where we entered it. Luckily, with some scrambling, we made it out. Just then a little breeze picked up and one guy broke out his kite and we flew the kite and went looking for water pockets and arrowheads. A friend found ½ and arrowhead and another almost complete one. And it was another gorgeous night of shooting stars and coyotes howling and an owl hooting. It was surreal.

Sunday morning I woke up with ice on the end of my sleeping bag but as soon as the sun popped over the hill, it was gorgeous and warm. During breakfast a raven flew slowly overhead and we could hear every flap of its wings in the perfect stillness of the morning. Morning and late afternoon-evening are my favorite times of the day. That moment right before and right after the sun sets, that time between a warm glow and a dew setting. The colors can be so intense, the sounds sweet.

After some yoga on the edge of the canyon, I packed up and the three of us hiked in, down and then back out of the canyon …by then my feet had had it. So the last couple miles across the flatter stuff was a little more tedious but we made it to the car by 4 and decided to do the quick tour of Natural Bridges while we were driving by. The drive back toward Moab was gorgeous with the sun setting on Comb Ridge (a big sandstone ridge that runs north-south and so was brightly lit in reds and pinks during sunset), various mountain ranges, and all the buttes. I can’t even begin to describe how pretty it was. Wide open space, red buttes, snow capped mountains, sandstone formations, dark canyons cutting out from the road, all of these bathed in golden light changing to orangey then blushing rose then moving toward a deep red and eventually fading to lavender and blue-grey as the sun set. Sigh.

I still can’t believe how much beauty can be packed into such a few short days. Trips like that can sustain a person for a long time. I feel all rosy and happy and liberated inside. Mm.