deserts – Better Living Through Literature

Not Hawaii (But Still Nice)

February 24, 2020 Karen

We’d been talking about going to Hawaii early in 2020 for my 40th and Doc’s 50th but literally the day before we booked, my work lost a huge client. Layoffs ensued (I’m still employed) (for now) and we both thought it might be wiser to hold on to that trip cash for an uncertain future.

But we wanted to go somewhere in February that had color, so we took a long weekend and headed to Moab. We only got one sunny day but the desert never disappoints:

Plus, I found the local quilt shop and got some souvenirs–which is also the plan for when we make Hawaii happen.

Moab, Finally

April 8, 2019 Karen

Doc and I drove down to Moab for the weekend and it was exactly what I needed. For a while there, we’d been going twice a year but last year we didn’t make it down at all and at points in 2018 all I wanted was to either punch some redrock or just sit on some sandstone like a lizard.

I’m happy to report that lizard-ing was done (no punching needed) along with hiking and eating at Pasta Jay’s and exploring the river trail in town.

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017 Karen

We headed down to Moab for the weekend, celebrating my oldest friend’s birthday there for the fourth year in a row. I’ve moved from wanting to see arches (although they’re always cool) to wanting to go find rock art, and my other friend’s knowledge of the area didn’t disappoint. We saw petroglyphs AND pictographs!

Looking out from the trail to Sand Dune Arch in Arches NP

The Hidden Valley trail–about two miles away from the petroglyphs

At the end of the Hidden Valley trail there are at least 6 panels of art. I liked the line of deer and the corn plant (?)

This is one of the beginning panels at Hidden Valley. Not sure what’s going on with Unicorn Circle Man.

Takeout pizza and a campfire to watch the sunset.

Bartlett Rock Art pictograph panel by Canyonlands. These are older than the petroglyphs and a little spookier.

If you can get to the desert in the early spring, do it. (Stay here and eat here.) If you can bring your favorite people along, even better.

Weekend In Moab

September 19, 2016September 19, 2016 Karen

If you can arrange it, you should always have people who like to offroad and people who are serious nature photographers and explorers in your group of friends, because that means you get to know about the best places to camp, the best places to shoot sunset, and you have a built-in convoy for learning how to hit the back roads, where the secret arches and dinosaur bones are.

Picture Frame Arch, with nature photographer friend for scale

Sunset (looking east) over the Fiery Furnace in Arches

Doc and the natural cast of a dinosaur bone outside of Green River

Another arch on the way to Picture Frame arch. Yes, there are pirate flags on my car. Everyone in the convoy got flags.

I took the “Roo” off road for the first time and surprised myself with how much fun I had. She did great, too–just stepped up over rocks, straddled ruts, and even made it through some sand that gave a Land Cruiser some trouble (!).

Moab may be my favorite place on earth. It was good to be back with my favorite people and be able to see even more now.

Desert Weekend

March 8, 2016March 8, 2016 Karen

It was time for the third annual trip to Moab to celebrate my friend’s birthday, and the desert was glorious, as ever.

Blue skies the first day:

High clouds and big vistas the second day:

And some rain and a long, clean wind as we rolled out of town:

Maybe we need to start celebrating every birthday in our friend group in the desert.

Looking For Sun

February 2, 2016February 2, 2016 Karen

Doc and I took a long weekend to head south, to Zion National Park at the bottom of the state. That area’s closer to Arizona than anything else, so it was 60 degrees and sunny for most of the trip. We saw the sights in the park and then went looking for “secret” petroglyphs.

Of course, we hit the storm that had come through northern Utah on the drive back (which took two extra hours due to terrible road conditions), but we saw sunshine and blue skies. We’ll be able to keep going through the last bit of winer.

Arches!

March 9, 2015 Karen

We went to Moab for the weekend to celebrate my friend’s birthday, just like last year. The light and clouds weren’t quite as incredible this year, but that’s really splitting hairs in a place like this. It was a grand time in a grand place that continues to fascinate, as Ed Abbey puts it so well:

“Even after years of years of intimate contact and search this quality of strangeness in the desert remains undiminished. Transparent and intangible as sunlight, yet always and everywhere present, it lures a man on and on, from the red-walled canyons to the smoke-blue ranges beyond, in a futile but fascinating quest for the great, unimaginable treasure which the desert seems to promise.”

“Grandeur and heroism”

September 29, 2014September 29, 2014 Karen

“Anything that lives where it would seem that nothing could live, enduring extremes of heat and cold, sunlight and storm, parching aridity and sudden cloudbursts, among burnt rocks and shifting sands, any such creature, beast, bird, or flower, testifies to the grandeur and heroism inherent in all forms of life. Including the human. Even in us.”

Edward Abbey

Doc and I took a weekend trip to Escalante with friends who were exhibiting at the Escalante Canyons Arts Festival. We had some rain on Saturday but that gave us a chance to see the rain make temporary waterfalls over the cliff tops (first photo; something I’d never thought I’d see). Our friends are also experienced canyoneers so we got to poke our heads into a slot canyon, another first for me (fifth photo). Utah, you are a good place to live.

Desert Weekend

March 10, 2014 Karen

My oldest friend (we met in math class in junior high!) had a birthday over the weekend and wanted to celebrate in Moab. So I hopped in the car with my other friends and had an epic 72 hours.

One of our group is a landscape photographer, so I actually got out of bed to catch the sunrise. Turned out it was too cloudy for good color, but I got to hear the desert birds waking up.
(This was by The Windows in Arches National Park)

Then it cleared up and the sky did this:
(Heading into Arches from the west, looking southeast to the La Sals)

And then there was the evening light on the red rock.
(In Arches; I think the Petrified Dunes area)

The whole trip had really amazing light and clouds.
(Around the Sand Dune Arch area in Arches)

The group all had 4WD vehicles so I got to see the back roads around the park and arches I’d never been to.
(Looking through Eye of the Whale Arch, west side of Arches)

We hit Canyonlands, too, in the Needles area, and saw Newspaper Rock on the way in to hike some of the Chesler Park loop:

And yesterday, before we headed out, my friends used their backpacking forum notes and GPS skills to get us to something called “Magic Mystery Arch” (in the Sand Dune Arch area, but no trail).
(The arch is back against the wall, but it looks almost solid until you see light through it.

We walked up under it and looked up through all the magic mystery:

The sun and the light were just incredible, all weekend long. The long views and the rocks made me think of this Paul Bowles quote I’ve posted before:

Once [someone] has been under the spell of the vast, luminous, silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute.

My inner hippie (in Canyonlands here) agrees.

All I Want Is Another Vacation

November 17, 2011 Karen2 Comments

The last two weeks being back from Moab have just run me over. Work isn’t particularly tough right now, but I’m feeling pretty worn out by it.

Let’s think back to a happier time a couple weekends ago, when my inner hippie was set free in the morning in Arches:

Doesn’t she look happy?