Days 44-45 - Driving to Utah and Colorado

To Kodachrome at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near North Las Vegas, Nevada

Distance - 295 miles
Time - 5 hours

To Denver at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Utah

Distance - 580 Miles
Time -  10 hours

Government shenanigans left my travel plans through Arches National Park a little up in the air after leaving Merry in Henderson and by Monday I was planning on just finding a place to stop along the way whenever I got bored with driving while on my way towards Denver. But then my southern Utah dreams were revived when Natalie, on furlough, said that she was thinking of camping in the area and suggested meeting at Kodachrome Basin State Park (Why didn't I think of that? A state park!).

After a great pancake breakfast with berry smoothies (thanks Merry!), I stopped at the grocery store and hit the highway. The drive from Henderson took me right through Vegas, zipping past the hotels and giant advertisements for shows, food, shopping at all hours of the day and night, before I was back out in the scrub desert on the other side. I-15 took me through the Virgin River Gorge in a very tiny corner of north-west Arizona – all I can say about it (and really the whole drive) is that if you ever get a chance, you should go, I think I might have been driving with my mouth hanging open in a kind of happy awe at the whole thing. My cell reception continued to deteriorate as the roads got narrower and the sights got ever more impressive, sedimentary layers making distinct striations and even ombre shadings from pale summits to deep red bases. The road to Kodachrome goes through Red Canyon, a beautiful and sudden plunge into drop offs and smokestacks carved by the wind into improbable shapes, even a pair of arches (I have my suspicions about them as they put the roadway right through them, but stranger things have happened naturally so I'm still inclined to want to believe that they were naturally occurring).

Kodachrome has a handful of cabins inside the park, I felt like we were pretty lucky to snag one on such short notice - “camping” has never felt so luxurious as staying in a cabin with real beds, heating, running water, and even a full bathroom! We were a short walk from a nature trail and a couple of hikes, and even just sitting on the patio we had a beautiful view of the sunset and the magnificent stone cliffs and columns. Natalie was super prepared in terms of food and cooking supplies, between the two of us we ended up with a delicious meal of grilled steak and veggies. One of these days I will actually have to learn how to grill, but in the meantime I'm happy to chop and prep and leave the actual cooking to others ;) It was a little chilly to be standing outside, but watching the stars come out was worth it – sometimes I miss being out in the middle of nowhere and able to just watch the night sky move and sparkle.

When we woke up the next morning our cars had frost on them! Thanks for that ice scraper, Mom – it's true that mothers know best. Natalie magically created egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast on the grill (you can tell my camping ignorance by my happy surprise that she travels with a skillet), and we sat by the window watching the sunlight move down the edges of the cliffs and slide across the valley towards us. As the sign by the door said, “We wish you could stay longer, but check out is at 11am” or in my case 9am because I wanted to arrive in Littleton by a reasonable dinner hour.

I set back out towards I-70 and headed east to the Rocky Mountains. I can't remember ever driving all the way through the mountains from west to east, it was really quite fun! I was silly and believed that I might have cell reception all the way along, being on a major interstate and all, but that was quickly disproved after the umpteenth dropped call (sorry everyone I tried to call!). Much to my delight I got “friend ambushed” at Chuck and T's by Caitlin, and we all had dinner together before Caitlin and I spent the evening chatting away at the kitchen table. We managed yet again to forget to take a picture of all of us, but I guess that's just a good reason to go back soon!

 Breakfast!

 Viva Las Vegas

 Back out into the desert

 Hi Arizona, it's nice to see you again!

 Welcome to beautiful Southern Utah

 Driving through Red Canyon

 On the nature walk we saw some pretty neat rock formations

 Natalie and the awesome panda hat

 Slick rock and the moon

 There's something fascinating about tree skeletons

 Goodnight Gnome ;)

 Frosty morning!

 I love how this kind of looks like a time lapse but was just an effect of how the sun was coming up over the cliffs

 The cabin

 Breakfast magic! I think one of my lingering Burkina quirks is a fascination with food and the cooking of it outside of a fully stocked kitchen

 Arch in Red Canyon that may or may not be totally natural

 I imagine the person who prints all these highway signs must get quite a chuckle at some of them. "No Name"? Really? (Granted, this from the person who as a child named her stuffed animals "Pink Bunny" and "Purple Bunny" - I'm one to talk about uncreative names!)

Snow on mountain tops always makes me smile :)