The Big Blue was absolutely amazing.  The water is a radiant mixture of blue and teal and prisinte waves that gingerly lap on the shores of the lake.  It was truly inspirational sitting on the shoreline and just enjoying the lovely breeze and the beautiful scenery.

Now given that I have been traveling for many a mile at this point, I was looking for some sort of sign that would tell me how long before the next gas station, or if there was no fuel for X amount of miles.  However, seeing no sign of the sort and also having FOUR exits  upcoming, I figured I could stop somewhere along the way.

As I am coming up to the first exit, it says NO SERVICES.  I did not think much of that as the stretch I was on was pretty empty and desolate.  However, by the time I get to the next exit, have put about 100 miles now onto my tank, and it says NO SERVICES, AGAIN, I am starting to get nervous.

Let me put this into perspective, I passed SIX exits, and each said NO SERVICES, only as I was getting to the exit…SIX!!!!

So somewhere about here:

Now you may notice that there is NOTHING near me, and yes, this is where the unhappy gurgle, and sputter of the engine began to occur.  About half a mile later, Angel turned over her last cylinder and I was left stranded on this road.

So I began walking the two miles needed to get to the closest gas station, when a trucker pulled over and offered me a lift.  Luckily he was heading in my general direction and offered me a lift.  It made what would have been a two hour ordeal into somehting that was a bit more bearable and managable.

First I saw Dark Knight, the new Batman flick…WOW!!!  Heath Ledger as the Joker was absolutely amazing and, come to think of it, quite insane.  I later saw Hellboy II because I figured, it would not be the same on a TV.  Eh, it was a fun movie visual effect…nothing overly great.

Now Provo, was, how to put this delicately, educational?  I bet that you were unaware that in Provo, I am a spinster!  Why do I say this, well it appears that when the Mormons were told go forth and be fruitful, well they did not take this as metaphor!

If I had a dollar for each twenty something couple, and I mean young twenty something couple that had not one, not two, but at least THREE children in tow, I would be able to finance this entire trip!  I think that the area could be accurately summed up as the license plate that I saw, again cannot make this up, on an Econline Passenger van “TEN OF US”.  I think that the area may be against Roe v. Wade, but maybe I am making that up!

WOW!!!

The best way I can describe it is to imagine a giant sand castle…I mean like several hundred feet up sandcastle, made of rocks that are pink and orange and red, with white caps and lush green vegetation around them. 

It was surreal and unbelievable, at any moment I felt that the structures would just fall over or when it started to rain that the rain would wash them away.  However, the rains came and went and the canyon still stood in all its majesty. 

I think that my camera captured some of the colors, I just hope that this can do it justice.

Now this climb I had staked out the first day I was in the park and I realized that the time to do this would either have to be in the early morning or late afternoon, with the setting sun.  Seeing how this hike is notorious, and again not making this up, for people falling to their DEATHS, I figured maybe this was not the hike that I wanted to do with no sunlight, so a morning climb it was.

I woke up pretty early on this day and went down to the visitor’s center to wait for the shuttle that tours you around the rest of the canyon.  While I was waiting at the stop, I thought to myself that there was a lot of geology in this park that I really was not aware of.  I figured that some other time, when I came back, I would need to get one of those ranger folk to explain what half of the formations in the park were.  Well, not that at this point much surprises me, however, on my shuttle heading up to do the exact same hike of Angel’s Landing was a lovely young woman by the name of Kellyn, who is a geology major!!

Now Kellyn is herself on a solo tour of the US and part of this trip for her was to try new things, get over fears, and in general push her limits.  Her reasons for hiking Angel’s Landing was to get over her fear of cliffs.  When I heard this I asked her if she had actually seen just how intense the climb was and she said that as long as someone had done it before, she should be able to get over herself.

The first 1.5 miles of the hike were aggressive but not that bad, just a really inclined path all along the canyon wall.  This then brings you to the watch tower which is a nice overview of what is to come.  In the previous picture it is at the end of the ridge spine, where the orange color is blended with the white.  Now the last half mile is almost completely vertical.  You are pulling yourself up the last portion with these chains that have been posted along the “path”.

This puts it all into perspective:

Needless to say, Kellyn has no more fears of cliffs!

120 miles north of the the northern rim of the Grand Canyon lies Zion National park which is the second “step” in the Grand Staircase.  Perhaps I should explain how this thing works; the staircase.  At the northern most point roughly 8500 feet lies Bryce Canyon.  The Floor of Bryce is the rim of Zion, 80 miles to the south.  Therefore at its highest peaks Zion is roughly 6600 feet.  Now the canyon floor of Zion is the rim of the Grand Canyon, roughly 4000-5000 feet depending on where you are in the GC. 

With the geology lesson out of the way, let me just say that entering Zion from the eastern side was THE GREATEST MOTO RIDE EVER!!!!  I recorded just about the whole way in, so enjoy the vid and the musical selection.

(The vid was sped up so that you do not fall asleep.  Also the musical choice was this or Vivaldi..I went with this)

I spent a total of three days in Zion and had a chance to explore a multitude of the trails and peaks in the park.  On the second day I did Weeping Rock, a large cavernous sandstone/shale structure out of which…well water pours out.

The best thing about Weeping Rock is that it is a very cool respite at the peak of a 110 degree day.  Again, I should probably know what that is in degrees Celcious, but lets call it FRIGGIN’ HOT!!

Now, being the adventuring sort that I am, I decided to hike up the most difficult trail in Zion which takes you to the highest point known as Observation Point.  Why, well not because it was there…more like the heat had me thinking I could do things that are better left for helicopters.  Long story short, the trail was an 8 mile round trip.  (For those of you keeping track that left calculators at home, that is 4 miles up to the top and then 4 miles back!)  Now I was thinking…ok 8 mile hike that is not so bad…I mean sure it gonna be inclined but how bad could it really be?

Let me put this into perspective, from the canyon floor to the summit is roughly 2000 feet or a 200 story building.  So take the Empire State building, throw another one on top of it, and then take away the elevators and stairs, and that was your first 4 miles!  I kept thinking to myself…it cannot be ascending the whole time…there has to be a flat part sooner or later…well that came later…much later…3.5 miles into the hike…right about the time that my 1.5 liters of water…ran dry, as the noon day sun began to crest the canyon walls!  WHOO HOO!!!  110 degree heat, I am exposed on the canyon rim, and there is only one way down…hike the 4 miles back!

Now I have, as I am sure you can imagine, a very unique hiking style, I like to think of it as the MACK truck approach.  You ever see one of those guys going up a hill, they are not the fastest moving object on the road…in fact most cars, SUV’s, motorcycles, mopeds, and bicycles, can pass them…but on the way down…LOOK OUT!!!  It took me 3.5 hours to make it to the canyon rim, again for those keeping score at home, that is a little over one mile per hour…think The Little Engine that Could fast!  Coming down, 1 hour!!  I like to think of the descent not so much as hiking down or walking down, but rather…falling with style!

Now the hike had one element that I absolutely fell in love with…Slot Canyons!!  Or really narrow canyons that during a rain storm, not that I was concerned, usually create fast moving river streams.  And oh the fun I had in those canyons!!

Now before I go viral and become the next Star Wars kid, in my defense…the heat got to me…at least this is the story that I am sticking to!  But how ’bout those canyon walls, eh?

(My dance floor!)

From the southern rim it is about 154 miles to wrap around the eastern portion of the canyon and get to the northern rim. Even though the stretch from rim to rim is a mere 10 miles, the wrap around to the east is actually the most direct method.

Coming into the northern rim was one of the most scenic and unique drives that I have done to date, and that includes all of the Colorado mountain scenery.  On the southern side of the canyon, the altitude is somewhere around the 4000 foot mark, but the northern rim starts around 5000 which means that the “desert” that I had been in on the south side gave way to an alpine forest that as you came in would open up into these vast and wide meadows that would stretch for miles and miles.  You can only imagine my excitement…MEADOWS!!!  I resisted my urge to go and frolic amongst them, and eventually got to my destination.

I arrived just in time to watch the sunset and I found that on this side of the canyon, the colors “popped” a whole heck of a lot more than on the southern side.  While there were not the multitude of trails that existed on the other side, I found the view to be more spectacular.

From here I am off to Zion, which I have heard nothing but amazing things about, so I am looking forward to exploring the second step of the Grand Staircase!

The views were spectacular and the vantage points were awe inspiring.

I hiked down one of the trails that lead from the rim of the canyon into the valley before and decided to have some fun while on the way down…I just love how the shot came out!

One of the things that I came to realize while i was at the grand Canyon, was that I had been taking for granted sunsets.  Now normally whenever we traveled, there was always a concerted effort to stop wherever we were and just be in the moment and admire the sunset.  I finally stopped and did so while here.

This is one of the many clouds that decided to rain down upon me in, you know…the DESERT!!

The next morning I got up with the sun to spread some of Beth in the Grand Canyon.  It was a beautiful morning and again I had a chance to be with her and with the beauty of the morning.

Now at some point, probably once I am back home, I will write a post that has all that I have learned compiled into one place, so that future travelers will not necessarily make some of the same mistakes I did.  For now, however, I believe it is important enough to list two of them here, as I learned both of these as I entered the “desert” regions of North America. 

1.  It rains in the desert…A LOT!!!  Now I know that this is counter intuitive, you should have seen my surprise, but in fact the entire time traveling through New Mexico, which thankfully was a very short stint, and Arizona…RAIN!!  This is due to the monsoons that come up every August.  Now I know what you are about to say, “But Jorge, we are not in August yet!”, and that would be correct, however, guess what?!?  THEY CAME EARLY THIS YEAR!! Two weeks early to be exact.

2.  The Navajo people are not great believers in fossil fuels.  I can say this because it was the first time during my trip that I have literally counted the miles between fueling stations and wondered if Angel was going to make it.  In fact there was one stretch where into her 4.5 gallon tank I put 4.4 gallons back in…lots of fingers crossed on that stretch.

The good news is that once you make it into the heart of the Navajo nation you reach a little place called Monument.

So this is Monument Valley, within the Navajo Nation.  Now I know that the Navajo nation is in the United States and they are technically part of the States and Nation…but I think they are trying to secede.  That’s right you heard it here first.  I believe that they are secretly in negotiations with the EU to at least go onto their currency.  The reason why I believe that they are secretly trying to join the European Union, is that while I was there only a mere 2 days…I heard not another American voice in the territory.  It seems that the only people that can find this location are either from France, Austria, Italy, or Germany.  (I think it is because they have the higher fuel economy cars while the American drivers in their SUV’s were stuck in the middle of the desert.)  The night I spent there, it rained on my tent, and I was kept awake until 1am with the partying French group that was just across the way.  At least my immediate neighbors to the right were pretty cool.  They were an Austrian family that came to the Southwest to experience the American cowboy.  They thought my idea of going cross country was the best thing since sliced bread, “Ah you are traveling on American Iron horse, modern day cowboy!  You take picture with my family?”  Needless to say I am sure those photos are already floating about youtube.  That is ok though, because in Austria I am huge.  Like Hasselhoff of Germany…now there is Jorge of Austria!

Now as I have stated before I am not a marketing guru nor am I any type of marketing genius, however, when you “own” a natural wonder, that half of the European Union is traveling half way around the globe to see, you may want to have a hotel closer than 24 miles away…ESPECIALLY IF YOU OWN ALL THE LAND!  Heck one may even want to put up more than one hotel for that matter…perhaps on just outside the park with “monument views”, or in the park on the “monument trail”.  I mean there was obviously a demand for the park as all the hotels in the area, granted there were only 3, were completely sold out…and had been for weeks!!  I almost wanted to send a couple of my Navajo friends to Disney World to go, “follow their lead!”  For that matter,  you may also want to invent in a market that is bigger than a general store.  Perhaps even a third gas station! 

Other than the poor location of services, however, the park was indeed amazing as can be seen by some of these shots.

Shot entering the park:

The three sisters:

http://whereisjorge.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/

As I was heading out of Colorado and traveling south to Durango, I was going over a spectacular mountain range that is known as the Million Dollar Highway.  I am assuming this name comes from the spectacular views and vistas that were all over the three different mountain peaks that I had to climb to get to Durango.  As I drove through the area, I noticed that there were several lakes in the areas that had their own entrances and side roads that lead to them.  For some reason I passed over a bunch of them, until I came to a little dirt road that lead to a lake known as Little Molas.

The best way to describe the feeling was nothing more than, I needed to check this path out.  The path wound and turned as it climbed further up the mountain, and for a while I was not sure if there was even going to be a lake at all.  Then the following opened up as I rounded the last turn:

Now I knew that eventually on this journey I would find this.  I was not sure when or how, but I knew that it would present itself once I was ready and the opportunity was there.  If I would have taken a picture of the vision that I had, I do not think that it would look any different than this. 

Beth had always been drawn to water and if there were a natural element that she embodied it would be water.  She had a way of flowing and ebbing with anything that came her way.  I know we had always discussed one day having a mountain home, and I think that given the circumstances, she could not have picked a better one.

I spent quite a bit of time by the lake.  I think I ran through the entire human emotional spectrum while I was there.  I think the hardest part was the letting go and allowing myself to be at peace with reality.  So this is a compilation of various shots of the lake and feelings that I had while I was sending her home: