Leaving Majestic Utah...It was time for us to leave Utah. Our sensory organs were filled with all the intense surprises of the past week: Glen Canyon and its new identity, Lake Powell; gasping while looking upward at the great red walls of Zion; gasping while looking down at the great red canyons and spires of Bryce Canyon; the intimacy of the sculptures of Capitol Reef; the vastness of Canyonlands; the variety of shapes at Arches. And between these national parks, a thrill a minute with the scenic byways of the Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument, essentially all of southwestern Utah. Special places like the Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest. As easterners, we had never thought about Utah much. The other western states get all the publicity: California with its movie stars and redwoods and hippies and earthquakes and wildfires; Oregon with its black sand coastline and Crater Lake and strange politics; Washington with Mt. St. Helens and Rainier and Boeing and Microsoft; Idaho with Couer d'Alene and its potatoes; Nevada with Las Vegas and Reno and the Chicken Ranch; Arizona with its Phoenix Suns and Diamondbacks and Cardinals and its Navajos and its retirees and the London Bridge; New Mexico with its Art Colony and Albuquerque and its town named after a quiz show; Montana with its Big Sky and, well, its Big Sky. They are all wonderful places and we've been lucky enough to see most of them, but for sheer jaw-dropping amazement at the way geologic forces can shape the terrain, none come close to the beauty, variety, and astonishment of Utah. As we drove out of Moab this morning, we soon learned Utah wasn't quite done with us. At the suggestion of our tour guide on a Colorado River boat ride two nights previous, we turned eastward on Scenic Byway 128 rather than simply go north to Interstate 70 toward Denver. It isn't a national park, or even a monument or a state park, but is a byway not to be missed, in a way combining all the best of what we had seen, with its sheer red sandstone cliffs, its natural pictographs reminding us of all sorts of objects, as if reminding us never to forget this unsung, unbeatable place.
Mesas and buttes and shapes rising as if to say "Farewell" as we headed out of Utah.
Soon, the shape of the land changed, and harsh weather threatened.
Storms followed us eastward into Colorado, but only the wind was serious.
Entering busy Colorado...
We had no sooner crossed into Colorado than we noticed a number of changes. First of all, there are a lot more people there. And trees. The scenery is lovely, too. There are even red rock cliffs early along Interstate 70 in Northwestern Colorado, but these soon change to tree-covered, and even snow-covered mountains in a beautiful stretch of road through the White River National Forest. This eventually gives way to the snow 'n fun towns like Vail and Dillon. Eventually, you get into Golden and then Denver itself, and feel squeezed and shunted about by all the cars and streets and traffic lights and people and it's then that you miss most those lovely, lonely red rocks and purple sage of the Escalante.
Yes, Colorado has it's wonders, too, so we've heard.
They have some red rock cliffs, too.
Is that snow on the farther mountain?
Beautiful Aspen in Autumn.
Now, there's snow. Next spring, it's runoff will help fill Lake Powell.
At the Air Force Academy...
Okay, we're a little spoiled about lodging. Mary Frances and I spend a couple of hundred nights between us in hotel rooms, sometimes together, sometimes not. Typically we stay at Marriott properties, because we need kitchen facilities and because their rewards program enables us to spend some of our vacation time in their hotels. National Park Lodges tend to be a bit less up-to-date, but fun and interesting because they're in the parks. We had that luxury at Mesa Verde, but it is rare because most of the in-park lodges are sold out as much as a year in advance. At Lake Powell and Zion, we had chain hotel accommodations nearby, and both were upscale, although the little balcony at the Best Western Zion Hotel had heavy duty screening so we wouldn't be beaned by golf balls from the adjacent nine-hole par 3 course. At Bryce Canyon a booking error caused us to wind up in a room that caused Mary Frances to consider finding another traveling partner. Moab's Big Horn Lodge was better, although less than we spoiled easterners are accustomed to. Now we are at the Air Force Academy, and expected the usual one-room, narrow bed, john-down-the-hall kind of barracks accommodations. All we can say to that is, Holy Mackerel! We are staying in the finest suite of rooms we've had since a Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in Guadalajara, Mexico, mistook us for Department of State officials about fifteen years ago and gave us the entire 26th floor penthouse. (I've had my wife refer to me as Mr. Ambassador ever since but no one else has made that mistake.) Pictures won't tell it all, but:
Perhaps the most beautiful lodgings we've had, at the Air Force Academy Inn.
Mary Frances's USAF retired brother Elmer, wife Joanne, and the fat kid.
Bedroom for the next two nights; talk about magnificent.
Pizza and wine - divine.
Weather or not...
Tomorrow we plan to visit Garden of the Gods and do some touring of the Air Force Academy which is a destination of itself. All the time we were in Utah the weather was warm and beautiful day after day, but we woke up with rain this morning. It rained for most of the 400-mile trip here and this part of the country is threatened with cold and wet for a while...but we'll see, and report our further adventures.
[We were sorry to learn of the the passing of Robert Henderson, brother of our friend Richard Henderson, a few days ago. Perhaps the special time we have spent among ancient stone structures this past week has given us a perspective on how short our human lifetimes are, and therefore how important it is to stay close to those we love.]
