5th June 2018
The red and cream mountains of the dessert lit briefly in the dawn light then were gone as we headed west and north on the next leg of our journey. I am tired. I know this, I feel it in my clothes. I know that sounds weird but with a small suitcase with almost everything dedicated to camping equipment, you get tired of your clothes. You also get sick of looking like a tourist but I have slowly come to accept that is exactly what we do look like.
iKaruS finally even understood my fascination with the Buff. Which is in essence a circular tube of cloth. I’ve used the same two for years going hiking or to the gym to hold my short hair out of my face. In cold weather it acts as a layer of material between the skin and the chilled air. Or held up around the neck to warm that area. But this was not cold weather and the Buff’s soon served a very different purpose, good old fashioned sweat bands. Mostly used looped around the neck but better than a hat in the dry dry desert it could be soaked in water and used tucked into a cap to provide an efficient cooling system. iKaruS who swapped out his bright yellow hat for a thick bucket hat with little airflow even just wore his holding back his lengthening hair and cooling his head. Along with our hiking pants and my long sleeve hiking shirts, yup we looked like tourists.
On one of our harder (for us) hikes in Colorado National Monument we stopped before the last 1/2 mile steep incline and spoke with a friendly local. We were about 7 miles into the walk at that point in hot conditions. She was aghast at my clothes as she was wearing running shorts and a singlet top. “Are you not hot” she asked me. Well of course I was hot it was over 30 degrees, BUT I wasn’t cooking. My long sleeves actually works to protect my skin from the burning rays of sun and I found it far more comfortable than bare skin broiling under the heat.
The plane flew onwards, my eyes closing after yet another early morning start, leaving the desert behind us. It was four weeks of beautiful desert scenery and near daily walking. Well if we were not walking we were driving instead. We could have spent four months in the same region. The final list of national parks and forest numbering around 25.
Starting with the missions in San Antonio
- The Alamo
- Mission San Jose
- And the other missions further downstream. Wandering along the river bank with wildflowers everywhere, viewing the aqueducts put in to bring life to the area.
A train then into Phoenix Arizona where iKaruS fell over and we stayed a night longer in the motel than planned, the heat topped over 100 during the day and trying to sleep in the tent was not so pleasant.
- Tonto National Monument and the Apache Trail drive
- Lost Dutchmans, (Superstition Wilderness) [c]
- Oak Creek, Red Rock state park - Sedona
- Dead horse state ranch state park on the Verde River (Coconino National Forest) [c]
- Jerome which isn’t a park but a city saved by tourism where we ate and wandered around the town high above the plains below.
Then on the Nevada and Las Vegas (on the strip)
- Red Rock Canyon
To Utah where we spent the better part of two weeks
- Cedar Breaks State park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Zion National Park
- Grand Canyon North Rim - the lesser known rim
- Escalante Petrified forrest state park
- Driving through the Capitol Reef in awe of the colours as it flashed by in the late afternoon light
- Green River state park [c]
- Goblin Valley State park
- Arches National Monument
To Colorado where we found accomodation over Memorial Day weekend
- Colorado national Monument and our practice hike
- The drive to Glenwood springs and back through the mountains of Raggeds wilderness
- Uncompahgre Wildress area where we seemed to go up and up over the passes forever, the sides of the cliffs bare to the drivers view
- Mesa Verde Nation Park
Then back to Arizona
- Monument Valley, with the wind blowing and whirlwinds tossing the dust into the air
- Navajo National Monument [c]
- Keet Seel National Park [c]
- Through the Navajo lands and the slot canyons near page.
- Horsehoe bend and the glen canyon area on the Colorado River
And the final hurrah a helicopter flight taking us over Lake Mead, the hoover dam and down onto the west side of the Grand Canyon.
So many memories constructed in such a short time frame. The colours blurring behind my eyes a they closed. I will dream of reds, and purples and creams against the brilliant blue skies for quite a while. I smile trying to remember the faces and interactions with those we’ve seen along the road.
The woman who thought iKaruS snoring was a bear all night, we know she woke early and spoke to her partner loudly about the bear. Soon the bear became a skunk however and was the source of amusement all morning. It was mothers day and she was celebrating with Mimosa which she kindly shared as her hubby tried to help the skunk. The skunk had other ideas and wasn’t trapped under the prickly pear but was excavating a nest. Not even the ranger with cat food and a trap could entice her to come out.
Or the novice hikers from Florida where “its flat” out in Goblin Valley. iKaruS was still injured as I boulder hopped upwards to the Devils cave. I wanted to go to the bottom but the last drop was over my shoulder height and alone I didn’t think I had the strength to drag myself up. So instead I chatted to the novice couple who were on the other side of a large boulder and we slowly made our way out. Storm clouds had gathered and iKaruS was worried. We hightailed it back out of the valley only to have the storm go around us. We tried to explain to the other couple the danger not of flash flooding but of lightening as the storm clouds closed in. I felt bad as we hoofed it back out leaving them behind us.
The guides we met along the way, Steve and Dianne at Keet Seel who give up a month of their year every year for the last 12 to open Keet Seel up to total strangers. Dianne made us coffee in the Rangers Hogan and we chatted of the differences culture makes to people. That same hike we met a father daughter pair the day before and they hadn’t made it, then finally they arrived. 8.5 hours after starting. iKaruS and I had started at dawn and climbed down into the valley before the heat of the day, five hours later we arrived tired. To add another three hours seemed incomprehensible but there they were smiling and happy.
The university lecturer that stopped by our campfire and had a chat with us. One of his students had visited Australia and she came up later and had a chat to us. So odd how friendly people were.
The group of three people we met half way up observation point. The girl sitting gathering her breath saying someone told her it was just up one more rise. IT wasn’t it took another two hours of up. But we made it and a little while after us so did they. That was a busy hike with lots of people on the trail but I could just imagine her face as she cleared the next rise only to see the trail going up and up and up.
The guy who caught us Geocaching in an alley behind his shop. We spoke to him at length about his business and ideas and his love of his city. He had a clothing line (Loki) along with his brother which catered to the skiing group. I guess summer is fairly slow.
So many people mostly generous and happy to stop and have a chat. So many stories to tell as we passed them by. But now with the plane lulling me to sleep we were headed back north west. Leaving behind these dry hot conditions. Our camping gear was packed and shipped the day before. We’d donated most of it in Page to a local womens anti-violence thrift store. They seemed thankful even through the chairs were a little used and the cooking equipment only cheap quality. It seemed like the right thing to do.
So I’m going to let myself be lulled to sleep and afterwards try and find some images to match the experiences we have had.
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