To The Red Desert

South of Moab Utah lie the red rocks of the desert I visited two and a half years ago. My friend Glen, who currently resides in Taipei City, had this great idea to road trip the Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Yellowstone, and so we covered five thousand km in five days. Real fast car, too, was his Celica.

The problem with that trip was that many of the photos I took were lost. This time I’m armed with two cameras, three lenses, card reader and the computer, which is how I can get some pics out and about while on the road.

We spent the rest of yesterday touring around the desert in the southeast corner of Utah. In Canyonlands NP we stopped briefly at Newspaper Rock, a site of Indian ptropglyphs that was sort of like an old school bulletin board. There are drawings and carvings in stone that are a thousand years old up to when the settlers came, represented by the wagon wheel. And some twerp named Michael who, in 1956, left his name there too.

The middle part of the day was spent descending a 2000’ escarpment face, the road switch-backing down a magnificent cliff to the plains below. We pulled into Monument Valley around sunset, and finally, I was able to recover those lost photos from almost three years ago.

This is the stuff of John Ford westerns – towering mesas and cliff bands and promontories. The photos look like they’ll be phenomenal. It was nice to be back. It’s also the center of a huge Navajo Indian reservation. Those Indians from westerns – Ute, Apache, Hopi – this is their place.

This night we dropped 117 USD on a hotel room. Smelled crappy, and the carpets were damp (?!?!). Oh well, sleep came nicely.

As I write this, we are nearing Telluride Co., crossing over Lizard Head Pass, 10 222’, about 3 200m. That’s higher than most people have climbed.

2000 km to Telluride. Gas is 3.10 a gallon. Hot springs tonight in Ourray. Nemaste!