Colorado & Utah Trip

    This was the first road trip I ever took by myself.  Now that Julie spends more time traveling with Rhonda, I don't invite her anymore, though it would be nice if I did.  I just don't want to get in the way.  Mom and Jason aren't huge fans of road trips either.  Despite the loneliness, this way of traveling is quite liberating; there's no one slowing you down or holding you back.  You get to see what you want to see.  And though some days on the road can feel a little lonely, all you need to do for some human contact is play a CD.
    I saw a lot of cool stuff on this trip.  Utah is now my second favorite state, behind California.  The interior of Utah is more beautiful than I thought.  I could see myself living in the Provo area, though I probably never will.  The mountains there remind me of Montana, and there's a huge lake with a desert behind it on the west side.  (After reviewing my map, this is Lake Utah.)  The people are friendly too.  On the way to the southeast part of the state I drove through some lovely grassland mountains.  Then the heat rose, and the crags of the desert came out of nowhere.  The geology of this area is remarkable, but I won't lecture about it.

    In Colorado I drove through canyons that the Colorado River carved long ago.  Independence Pass was heavenly- it's 12,000 feet above sea level, almost the height of Mt. Rainier.  I was extremely happy up there because I guess low oxygen gets you high, lol.  It felt like I was on top of the world, with snowcapped peaks surrounding me, blue skies in abundance.  Then I cruised down the pass on my way to Gunnison Canyon.  But first I stopped in Aspen, a cute little town where Lloyd and Harry drove on their moped in Dumb and Dumber.  My car made it over six Colorado passes in one day!  Gunnison Canyon had some spectacular views.  You can drive on the rim of the canyon, and there's no railing so you're about a foot away from speeding off it to your doom.  Vertigo?  Hell yes, it was Coloradical!

    Then I took an early morning drive on the rim of Colorado National Monument, which had more breathtaking views, before heading back into Utah to check out some of the National Parks.  Once again, I was mesmerized by the geology.  If God were a sculptor, the Colorado Plateau would be his masterpiece.  I decided to go freestyle rock climbing up the side of a red, rocky canyon.  I made it about halfway up before I heard snakes in the bushes, and the fragile rocks were shifting under my feet.  I love sandstone but it's soft and hard to climb down from.  Arches & Canyonlands are sister parks right next to each other.  There's some true geological insanity here; rocks in the shapes of fins, mazes of canyons, arches made of rock, even a rock balancing on a column, like it was trying to be a ballerina. 
    There's a view in the Canyonlands that ranks up there with Logan Pass in Montana as the finest in the U.S.  There was this hike on an "island in the sky", which surrounded you with drops that revealed vast vistas of meandering canyons everywhere in the distance.  Phenomenal.  I went running on the way back, which probably wasn't the best idea considering all the sandstone.  But the feeling was blissful.

    Then I took a drive through Moab all the way down to Monument Valley, listening to A Perfect Circle's Mer De Noms (some great desert vibes on that album).  Moab was full of strange people- Mormons and adventurists mixed with wandering travelers like me.  I got a speeding ticket just before seeing the Four Corners.  After that I ran out of water and was extremely dehydrated while driving through that portion of Arizona that loops back into Utah.  Monument Valley was so beautiful, and there was a gorgeous sunset on the way back to Moab.
    I spent my evenings watching the NBA Finals.  Game 6 was a joy to watch.  The Celtics blew out the Lakers in the most lopsided close out game in Finals history.  I really love watching the Celtics play, they're a perfect team.  Such great balance between offense and defense.  And they have my man, Ray Allen, who lit up game 6 with 7 three-pointers.  During one of these games, there was a crazy dust storm that swarmed the hotel.  Don't worry, nothing got damaged.  No harm, no foul.

    On the last day I drove through the Great Salt Lake Desert.  It has miles and miles of salt flats- pretty incredible.  It was like an ocean of salt- I wondered how it all got there.

    It felt great to return to beautiful western Washington.  Seeing all our greenery after so much dry land was exhilarating.