How It Began

Greetings, everyone!

For those of you who don't already know, I am on a solo journey across southern Utah. It was inspired by the daughters: Rosa is living in southwest Utah -- at Falcon Ridge Ranch in the little town of Virgin, and Zara is at Open Sky Wilderness in southeast Utah, just over the Colorado border (about midway between Moab, Utah and Durango, Colorado -- or on an even more miniscule scale, between Monticello, UT and Dove Creek, CO). Let's put it this way: to get there, you meet your guide at the Shell Station in Dove Creek, turn on the 4-wheel drive, and bump your way for 20 miles along an unpaved road.

Charlie and I came out to visit Rosa on October 17, and had a lovely few days with her. Charlie, who had to return to NYC to maintain his status as Professor Post, flew home on a red-eye from Vegas on October 20.

Zara will be graduating from her wilderness program on November 14, so I decided to stay out here in the interim, traveling through the national parks. As long as I don't go hurtling into any canyons or encounter an antisocial rattlesnake, I intend to show up at Zara's wilderness course on Nov. 12 to begin the three-day graduation ceremony. I am not allowed to feel sorry for myself about the fact that during graduation, I will be sleeping out on the ground without a tent in subfreezing weather, because Zara has been doing exactly that for quite a while now. She's been there since Sept. 3, and she reports that the last few weeks have gotten rather nippy.

Since the only paid work I have done in recent months is freelance, I have the unusual opportunity to take some time for myself, catch my breath, and see this beautiful red rock country. Utah has five extraordinary national parks -- Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands. And that's not to mention Dixie National Forest (so named because its flora is similar to that which grows in the south: cottonwoods, tamarisk, juniper). And the Escalante Grand Staircase, which I believe is classified as a national monument. And all the state parks. Everyplace you go is outrageously beautiful, so that after a while you're just at a loss for words. Each park has a different feel and look.

I am still at the beginning of my trip. I'm starting at Zion, in southwest Utah, and will slowly make my way east. I plan to stick around here at the Thunderbird Hotel for a couple of more days so that I can do more hiking in Zion, and then move on to the fabulous Ruby's Inn jut outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon, where I'll spend a few days hiking.

I am posting some of my photos so that you can get an idea of what it looks like out here. I'm afraid that my pix hardly do justice to the awesome mountains and desert and majestic canyons, but they're all I've got.

I'll start with the pre-scenic vista photos -- a few shots of our visit with Rosa last week.