Miles traveled: 300
Hours on Road: 7
States covered: 1 – Utah
This was not a good day of driving. Let’s just say, four hours into our five-hour drive we still had three hours to go.
But well before that, we all got up to drive Jeff to the airport. I had thought I’d feel comfortable leaving the kids alone while I drove him, but throughout the night I started thinking about the odd choice of desk help that the owners of the hotel had made, and that made me think that maybe weird things were going on. Yes, I’ve seen too many horror movies, but I swear to you, the two guys in charge of the front desk when we signed in were not what you’d expect. They knew what they were doing, but the front desk staff is the first impression people get of your establishment, and they’re usually normal-looking, if not attractive people. The two guys here were very nice, they just didn’t look the part; they were more like Beavis and Butthead than Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The head guy had a long greasy ponytail with obvious dandruff along his part. I’m fine with ponytails on men – just clean them.
Anyway, the boys weren’t happy they had to get up, but they did, and we got Jeff dropped off at the airport, which had one 20-seater plane and one 6-seater plane on its field, and that’s it, and we were back in our beds by 6:30. Parker said he missed his Dad already. I think I’m the only one that fell back asleep. I had a hard time getting back up, but they offered a free breakfast at the hotel, so by 8:30 we were on our way down to eat. We went back to our room and didn’t leave until checkout time. It was just too relaxing not being in the van.
And then we were on the road again. We drove through Arches as far as Balanced Rock so Parker could get an idea of the park. As we drove up the switchback, some guy tailed me trying to get me to drive faster. I told the kids, he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. I’m from Connecticut, and our favorite hobby is ticking off New Yorkers who want us to go faster. Parker was glad he’d gotten to see part of the park.
The ride was once again fascinating. The changes in landscape are unbelievable: we passed giant mounds made from heaps of dark brown dirt; we passed striped cliffs with amazing rock formations; we passed large mountains; and we went through flat prairies. Always, always, the given speed was at least 10 mph faster than I felt comfortable going.
We stopped in a town called Green River to get gas; it’s expensive out here – about $3.10 a gallon. The poor little town looked like it had died a slow, painful death. More closed store fronts and rundown houses than any town should have. The gas station we stopped at had, according to Cal, more people than the entire population of the town.
We had intended to stop at Goblin Valley on our way, but by the time we reached the place where the road veered off for that park, it was too long a drive considering how much farther we still had to go. I had made reservations for Monday and Tuesday nights at Kodachrome, but I had planned on our staying in Moab for one more night, so I hadn’t included Sunday night in our reservations. I felt that we needed to get there early enough to ensure a site for ourselves. Plus, I’m just darned tired.
I stopped to view San Rafael reef. While there, I bought a horse-hair bowl from a Navajo man. I had seen artwork like that at Devil’s Tower, but I didn’t like the clay that it had been done on. His bowl was beautiful, so I bought myself one. His daughter went to the car to wrap it for me and then handed it to me in a bag. I was convinced she’d switched the bowl with a rock and that’s really what I was walking away with, but I didn’t want to check the bag in front of them, so I just took my chances. I knew, logically, that they hadn’t scammed me – he seemed too nice. But my paranoia always makes me think the worst.
Along the ride we were passed by a group of Hell’s Angels. That impressed the kids.
We stopped for a photo op and bathroom break at Eagle Canyon, and right after that, as we drove downhill along I-70, it looked exactly like we were driving into a painting. Colors like that cannot be possible in real life. Parker got a great photo.
We passed through a couple of National Forests on our way: Fish Lake National Forest and Dixie National Forest. We didn’t have any idea we’d been in them; we just noticed the signs that said we were leaving them.
About 14 miles before Bryce Canyon, which was on our way to Kodachrome Basin, we passed through Red Canyon. It was, inarguably, a red canyon. It never ceases to amaze me that the earth can be that color and have such interesting shapes.
We drove miles and miles out into nowhere to get to Kodachrome. I started to curse out Uncle Vance, who had suggested we stay here. It didn’t seem possible a park could be out where we were driving. And it definitely wasn’t possible that it would be a nice place to stay, being that far from anything. But we finally reached it, and the friendliest woman in the world greeted us. She and her husband are volunteers from Massachusetts who stay at the park all summer and tend to the Visitors Center. She said they’d come here 15 years ago, long before there were any amenities, and fell in love with the peace of the place. She told us about the black light you can use to see tiny scorpions in the dark. She told me about the great bathrooms and showers that the place has and about the hikes we can take. She offered up recommendations of what to see outside of Kodachrome, and most importantly, she said that there was definitely a site available for us that night.
Our site is just across a little bridge that spans a dry river bed. Of course, I started thinking about the possibility of a flash flood coming along and killing all of us. After all, there were storms all around us all day long, and that’s what had happened to those people who were killed in the flash flood at another campground. The rain wasn’t over them; it was north of them. They never saw it coming.
But we set up our tent and had a quick dinner and colored the coloring book I’d bought Trey at the Visitors Center and listened to Parker read us facts about North American mammals from the book I’d bought him at the Visitors Center. We looked for scorpions with the black light I’d bought, yes, at the Visitors Center, but we couldn’t find any. I was as relieved as I was disappointed.
We were in bed by 10.
For corresponding photos, go to:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1912502027/a=2740108027_2740108027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
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