I woke up the next morning a bit on the early side, so I quietly unzipped the sleeping bag and tent and stepped out into the cool smooth sand without disturbing Trinity. The sun was just beginning to creep over the rocks so I grabbed the camera for a few shots, and then I put it down so I could enjoy the present moment with my own unobstructed eyes. It was a drizzly morning with clouds floating by and showers coming and going. We were planning to take a day trip to the nearby Canyonlands National Park, an hour away from Arches, and from anything else, including food. Rather than pack a full lunch, we decided to have a large leisurely breakfast before heading out, so I started a fire and enjoyed the early campground quiet before most folks stirred from their tents, reading the Michael Jackson Special Commemorative Issue of Rolling Stone. I made a big skillet of fried potatoes, toast, and coffee and when it was about ready I went to wake Trinity for breakfast.


After cleanup and afternoon snack packing, we headed to Canyonlands over more Time Traveler’s Wife. Canyonlands National Park is huge, and there is actually no way to go all the way through the park, across the main canyon. Wait, let me rephrase that – there is no way in a car to go all the way through the park – backpacking through is certainly an option, but one we were not prepared for! In order to see the whole park by car, you have to drive hours and hours around it to three different entrances. This adventure would take days, unless your goal was literally just to drive around the whole thing and not really enjoy where you were going, so we picked the closest entrance, the Island in the Sky section, and headed for the visitors center. There was an exuberant young Park Ranger setting up for a brief presentation, so we started our visit learning about the Utah Juniper and Big Horn Sheep, from a very excited graduate student/Park Ranger!

We were pretty worn out and sore from yesterday’s hikes, so we picked a lesser trail, which luckily was also supposed to be one of the most beautiful in this park. We still hiked more than a couple of miles throughout the day. Canyonlands is where the Colorado River and the Green River meet, and there are some amazing views of these rivers curling through the canyon hundreds of feet below. We hiked this first trail, and then took it easy the rest of the day, driving to the “overlook” spots for the views. We heard another Park Ranger extolling the beauty of the nearby Dead Horse State Park, so we decided to drive there after we had seen the main spots in Canyonlands.




We rounded out the day with more leisure time by the fire and another early night to bed. This was a much slower day of good home cooking, sunrises, canyon vistas, and reading… that wonderful stuff that vacations are made of. Why can’t we take time to enjoy these kinds of things at home more often? I am simultaneously determined to find it in my daily life at home, and plagued by the fact that my youthful optimism seems to be seeping away with each day’s commute to the office… Well, I don’t want to end this installment on a sour note, so here’s a look on the brighter side:

Once when we were starting one of the trails, we saw a couple of boys, maybe 10-15 years old, waiting at the entrance by themselves, kicking and tearing at one of the old worn out fence posts. We were both annoyed and disgusted with these guys, and I tried my trusty old passive aggressive technique of saying, “Wow, I can’t believe they’re doing that,” loud enough for them to hear. But they did not hear and kept right on destroying. So, Trinity turned around and walked back over to them and scolded them with a little lecture! After the hike when we walked back by, the fence post was safe and sound thanks to Trinity and her laughable sidekick.