From Big Bend to Togwotee

We left heading out towards El Paso. It took about 8 hours to reach El Paso. We passed through El Paso at night, singing El Paso City by Marty Robbins. We kept going, wanting to exit Texas before retiring for the night. We entered New Mexico, and kept going. I decided that I'd go for Arizona before stopping for the night. My eyes were drooping after 10 hours of driving. According to the map there was a rest area just inside the Arizona border, which was another 2 hours away.

By the time Arizona was within minutes of reach I was struggling to keep consciousness and just waiting for that rest area to park for the night. We hit the border and gave great cheer, rest area 2 miles away! I had been driving for close to 12 straight hours. As we approached the rest area a sign read, "rest area closed. Next area 70 miles."

Oh no! I was so tired! I took out another cigarette, turned up the music, and Mary and I told stories to stay awake. An hour and a half later we made it to the rest area, and passed out within 5 minutes of arriving. We had done a shift of work than traveled for over 13 hours.

The next morning we woke up in Arizona, when I stepped out of the Micro-Mini I was amazed by our surrounding scenery. I hadn't seen sun since before El Paso and now being in Arizona the scenery had dramatically changed; huge, smooth boulders in mountains and scattered across the landscape, land of tan colors, much different than "Texas gray and brown." We had exited the Chihuahuan desert and entered the Sonoran desert.

We drove a short ways to Saguaro National Park, just outside of Tucson. We saw the indoor displays, then we took a drive through an area of the park. The Saguaro cactus is the only cactus that is also scientifically considered a tree. It can grow as old as 200 years and grow over 50 feet tall and weigh over 16,000 pounds. It was a hot and beautiful ride: to be in their presence was humbling, being dwarfed by these cacti.

From there we drove north through the desert to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Casa Grande ruins is the remnants of a building from a culture that flourished from around 300 AD to 1400 AD. The building is aligned with the magnetic fields as well as celestial aligning. The first Spaniards to reach the area discovered the abandoned building and called it "Casa Grande" (big house). It was 107 degree there the time we visited, and supposed to climb to 111. We walked around the area and played with some of the local ground squirrels of the area in the shade, then we drove on.

We traveled north past Phoenix, windows open, blowing 111 degree air on ourselves as a relief from the blazing sun. After about 5 hours of driving in this excruciating heat I took an exit and headed for a gambling casino. I wasn't interested in gambling, it was the air conditioned environment and a free drink that drew me there.

We arrived and each set out with $10.00 in quarters, trying to milk those for as long as we could to wait out the midday temperatures. About 2 or 3 hours later we headed back to the highway, temperatures lowered to maybe 100 degrees.

We headed north towards Flagstaff on our way to Dee and Jim's just south of the Grand Canyon. We arrived about 10:00 at night.

The next morning we drove out to view the Grand Canyon for the first time. Unless you've seen it for yourself it's hard to describe: a canyon about 10 miles across and one mile deep. The canyon itself runs 277 miles long. It cuts across different color rock layers giving time perspective and at the bottom runs the mighty Colorado River which formed this massive canyon cutting through desert rocks over millions of years. We sat on the edge of the canyon, looking in silence for a while, while feeling small in the grand scheme of things, then we walked along the edge for a while. We picked up a tour bus driven by a man we had worked with at Big Bend and went out to the west side of the canyon park. There we walked along the edge of the canyon for hours and watched the sun set with a lady we had worked with at Big Bend who was a tour bus driver, (the other drivers wife).

The following day we hiked into the canyon with Dee and Jim. Jim has worked at the canyon for the past 11 years and is an expert on the park canyon. It was a pleasant experience to see the canyon from the inside. A fall would give a brief 12 second tour of the canyon!

The next day we took back to the highways and byways, traveling east along the canyon, then north to the Utah border at Glen Canyon. We stopped in at the Glen Canyon Dam and saw the second largest dam (first is Hoover). This dam creates the southern tip of Lake Powell which is formed from this dam. The lake is named for Major John Powell who was the first to explore the Colorado River. He was one of the first European people to see the landscapes of much of our journey that the Colorado flows through. I, later at Togwotee, read a few books by, and about, Major Powell.

We crossed the dam and headed west towards Zion National Park in Utah. We reached Zion at dusk and slept at a campground inside the park. The next morning we toured through Zion. Zion is filled with cliffs and canyons. The rock formations here are quite varied: hoodoo's, arches, symmetrical patterns in rock faces, plateaus, and peaks fill this area with wonder.

We then drove a short ways to Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce, only 80 miles from Zion, is so unique in it's own way. Bryce is filled with fantastic orangish colored hoodoo's (pillars of rock caused by erosion). Bryce is hoodoo upon hoodoo in fantastic canyons. We took a hike into the canyon and back up the canyon. To walk among the pillers and Douglas firs that grow between canyon walls was spectacular. The beauty of Bryce is hard to describe.

We left Bryce, driving only a short ways. It was getting near dark and I wanted to travel on Route 12 in the light because a few years ago when I traveled on that scenic byway I was quite impressed with it's natural beauty. Mary and I saw a place that had teepee's beside the road. We stopped in and we decided to rent a teepee for the night. It also included use of a indoor heated swimming pool. We went for a swim then headed for the teepee. We built a fire and roasted smores in front of the fire.

The next morning we headed to out on Utah's roads again. We saw varying landscapes. Some places had bright red rocks and sand, others looked like a Arizona desert, others like a Texas desert, others like the Midwest farm fields, others like the hills and trees of the Adirondacks. This whole area was so sparsely populated that it made us want to pick a spot and build a house.

We then passed through Capitol Reefs National Park. Again, more interesting, unique rock and cliff formations. Also since it's a relatively new park there are still farmers working the land, including farm animals around. They were grandfather claused, but soon the federal government will take control over the farms and restore the land to it's natural state.

We traveled on, I was looking for a shack beside the road that I had taken a picture of two years prior. Mary spotted the shack when I was reading. We stopped and we both looked at the view I had seen solo a few years prior. It was wonderful to see something together that I had seen on my way to New York years prior to be with Mary.

We reached Canyonlands National Park and went for a short hike. Then we drove to a point where there were cliffs to one side of us and spectacular canyons carved in the valley floor in front of us. Canyonlands features are of plateaus, arches, mesas, buttes, fins, and of course, canyons which lie in valleys which offer spectacular views of their vastness. The canyons were carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers which join in the park boundaries.

As we sat and watched the sun set over the canyons we noticed that the cliff walls to our side were turning red. As the minutes passed the walls grew redder, and redder. The most spectacular color change I have ever seen. It was beautiful, and then the sun's rays were lowered and the rocks changed back to brown.

We drove just outside the park to a overlook and slept for the night. In the morning we drove back into the park to see some more of it's beauty.

From there we drove to Arches National Park, only a short distance away. Arches, although so close to Canyonlands, was so different. Arches holds hoodoo type structures an odd unique shapes, and fins of rocks, and other unusual shapes of landscapes, and of course, arches. Arches National Park holds the greatest density of natural arches in the world. Arches of rocks in all sizes and shapes. We walked out to a double arch and sat under it admiring the views. Then we drove through the rest of the park.

From here we drove straight on to Togwotee, Wyoming, stopping only to sleep.