From looking out to looking up


June 3, 2018


There was no use trying to get into Arches National Park until Memorial Day was over. You can see the line of cars waiting to get in with a webcam on the internet. So we went back to Canyonlands and “Island in the Sky”. We loved this park because the vistas are so amazing and although there are always other people on the trails, we were frequently alone on parts of the trails. 


Yes, Steve is the one who moved all the rocks.



The country seems so massive our here in the west and I wanted to ask "whoever is in charge" why we can't let in more immigrants who seek asylum from atrocities going on in South America. There's room for them, they work and pay taxes, and they are not the ones committing the school shootings. And the hundreds of children in custody  of ICE under the age of 10- don't get me started.

After Memorial Day we spent time at Arches National Park. Soon after we drove into the park the first day we had to turn around because of an accident. But we were able to get in Tuesday and Wednesday to see the amazing arches nature has formed in the canyons.

One of many arches in Arches National Park




Thursday we drove a long way to get from Montecello, Utah to Hurricane, Utah. The campsite here in Hurricane is one of the prettiest- paved sites with grass and trees. So many times we have avoided being outside in our chairs and on the “rug patio” because it has been too hot, too cold, or more likely, too windy and dusty. So Friday when we realized the temperature was perfect and the chairs so inviting, we decided to go nowhere. It was one of those days when you move slow, read most of a book, wash a rug to air-dry outside, and eat leftover lasagna from the freezer.

Home


Friday we drove to nearby Zion National Park. This is the most “Disney-fied” National Park we have visited. “Disney-fied” in that there are thousands of people who visit this park daily. No one is permitted private cars through most of it so you wait in line for a shuttle and ride to the different trails and sights. At 8 different stops you can get off to hike. There are miles of trails and they are mostly paved. And, maybe because it was a Saturday, there were SO many people. Steve minds that worse than I do.

Steve says the difference between Zion and the other parks we have been to is that at Zion all the views are found looking up and the other parks the views are found looking out and down.




Back at my lake house I had a 3 mile walk I did several times a week. I rarely felt breathless or exhausted during or after the walk. But now—after all the hiking and biking we have done, I still huff and puff and am the slowest on any trail we take. People who look older than me go zooming by and I feel discouraged. Sometimes when we have been hiking at 7000 or 8000 feet above sea level I had a good excuse. But Saturday at Zion we were only at 3000 feet and after 2 miles hiking I was done. Granted, it was 96 degrees outside and the trail went up and down.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We're still fighting the Civil War

Image
A year ago I started this blog and could not finish it. It still brings up strong feelings in me and I share it just to get it out of the draft list and because some of you are struggling as I am. In S eptember of 2019- One year ago ! We traveled from Indiana - where we had the RV maintenance done an d stayed at an AirBnB on Winona  Lake, to Ohio- where we visited my brother and his wife at the home place and saw old high school friends - then we headed to Pennsylvania. The AirBnB at Winona Lake. Scenes from Indiana. Another Indiana scene.                                                            On our way back to Virginia we stopped at the Gettysburg National Park in Gettysburg, PA.   I felt weepy after we watched a video at the Visitor’s Center that included the history that led to the Civil War. There were two questions. 1) Could the new states to the west have slaves or would they have only free labor? And 2) Could the southern states secede from the union as they wished? The eco
Read more

From the city to the desert, from hubbub to stillness

Image
April 15, 2018 Ba-ba-ba Bamba…… was playing as we sat on the top of a double decker bus and toured San Antonio. We had a 3 day Mega-Pass so we could hop-on-hop-off the bus all over town. We saw the Alamo, saw an IMAX movie about the Battle of the Alamo, toured the Buckhorn Saloon to learn about the Texas Rangers and saw Bonnie and Clyde’s car full of bullet holes. We floated down the River and walked the River walk in different areas of it. We ate BLT’s at the charming Guenther house – where a German started a mill in the 1800’s and there is still Pioneer flour made nearby.   We skipped the 3 lb cinnamon roll and had peach strudel instead. I forgot to mention last week that probably our favorite thing in New Orleans was the WWII museum. We could have stayed there 2 or more days. Tickets for the Movie there sell out fast. We were reminded of the Japanese interment during the war and how many manufacturing sites stopped making appliances, etc. in order to ma
Read more

They killed Indians and we broke the bed

Image
April 29, 2018 All of our traveling through Florida, Texas, and New Mexico has reminded us of the horrible way the white settlers in the 1800’s treated the native Indians. Fort Stanton in New Mexico is a place that was established especially for helping the local   white settlers protect themselves as they took over lands that the Mescalero Apaches had lived in for thousands of years. Officer's barracks Sunday afternoon we visited Fort Stanton and found its history fascinating. First it was a military post (Kit Carson, Black Jack Pershing, Billy the Kid) -to kill the local Indians who were threatening the white settlers - and then it was a TB hospital for Maritime Marines - when the only treatment we had for TB was fresh air. Then it became a mental health facility, then a low security correctional facility for women, and finally it became a State Monument. I tried to imagine being a nurse there for TB patients. I loved seeing the nurses quarters. Aside
Read more