Post Dated: Road Trip: CA to Utah

We left Oakland in the early morning, amidst Bay fog and foggy eyes and fogged brains. Kinda quiet. Silence seemed to be the soothing factor when leaving the place I love with the man I love for a place I didn't yet love after a very fun evening of love (dance) and most of my friends that I love . . .
Made great time to Reno (3 hours) in the early hours. Then we started listening to InkSpell, which I'd started reading years ago, but never actually finished.

Our first night brought us to Provo, UT and Sara W., newt-seeker extraordinaire! Provo is kinda scarily perfect. Yes, it's the Mormon capital of the world. All the houses have perfect white fenced outlining perfectly manicured green lawns, with perfect beautiful children chasing perfect golden retrievers, down un-cracked sidewalks. All the cars parked on the super wide roads are washed, all the houses have perfect paint. And all the perfect Mormon girls with their cute outfits and matching little handbags are concealing handguns oiled to perfection. Apparently, they do all carry these for protection. Against whom, I have no idea.

We did a beautiful hike in Provo Canyon with waterfalls and hummingbirds. Saw a number of perfect Mormon families (they are prolific!).

Then we headed South a few hours to 9 mile Canyon, where we camped for the night. The petroglyphs there were very cool.

Next day to Arches National Park. Very hot. 100F. A/C is good! We did a couple of short hikes, running from tree to bush for shade, when there was any. I was surprised at all the people wearing flip flops/flats and carrying no water in the middle of the day on these 5 mile/no shade trails. hmmm, and these people reproduce?

Arches is beautiful, with the red stone and amazing, well, arches. But next door, is Canyonlands National Park, which is just gorgeous. Spent the afternoon and evening in Canyonlands. Did a sunset hike along a ridgetop. Incredible views of millions of years of geologic formation and change. Amazing!

Chris antagonized a man who was wearing a t-shirt:
"Evidence of Noah's Flood:
1. Canyons, Valleys
2. Lakes
3. Rivers
4. Mountians"
etc. etc. blah blah

It was pretty funny. The guy was completely serious and turned to his wife, and looking out over the canyonlands says, "it's it amazing that God created this just a few thousand years ago!?"

We left them to take a dip in the Colorado River, them camped on BLM land outside the park.

The next day we did a couple of beautiful hikes to canyons and arches and viewpoints.

Next: Colorado