go south, that is what we'll do, go south where the sky is blue (sometimes)

brian and i headed down south over memorial day weekend to memorialize our 8th anniversary and to just get away for awhile. we decided to go to escalante national monument after brian heard a colleague mention going there. it was difficult to find out information about the monument online--so when we drove down there on friday we weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into.

we got to go through areas of the state we've never seen before, which was fun. driving through dixie national forest was interesting. the landscape was beautiful with lots of pines and really tall aspens. but it was also very, very high up. so climbing the mountain, we sometimes found ourselves going as fast as 25 mph. but, if you can imagine we did still manage to pass some motor homes at that speed.

this is a view from the top of the dixie national forest.

we made it to escalante friday evening and headed out onto a clay dirt/gravel road. our goal was to go several miles in and then camp off the side of the road and then get up on saturday and drive the rest of the way to some cool slot canyons and hikes. we made it 20 miles out onto this road and decided to stop so we could set up our tent, eat, ect before dark. we did all of that and enjoyed feeling like we were out in the middle of nowhere (no one or human-made thing was visible from where we were). our only company was a jack rabbit and cows. cows just seem to be all over escalante, and if you don't see them you know that they have been around because there are just tons and tons of cow pies. i've never seen so much cow poop. but a lot of it was old, so we just kicked some out of the way to set down our tent.

that night we settled into our tent and did some reading up on the monument. then, probably around 9:30 it started to rain. and it proceeded to rain all night long. there were a few times when we thought it was going to stop, but then it just started up again. neither one of us slept well (we couldn't remember falling asleep at all), but thankfully for us we didn't feel too wet. in the morning we discovered there was a puddle at the foot of the tent and that our pillows, sleeping bags, blankets, ect were really very wet. all of that wouldn't have been too bad except we had driven out 20 miles on a mostly clay dirt road that, when wet, is extremely difficult (sometimes impossible) to drive on in a 2-wheel drive car like ours. so we carried all of our wet stuff quickly to the car (trying to avoid stepping on cactuses and cow pies) and threw it in the car. we both had visions of being stuck out there and/or having to pay for a tow truck. but, somehow, we made it out. every time we drove through a big puddle or went up a hill we were really worried, but we made it back the full 20 miles. honestly that seemed like a miracle.

we made it into town around 8:15 and went to the gas station to find out what we could do on a wet, rainy day when going anywhere that required 4-wheel drive was out the question. while we were there, i noticed a sign advertising a sons of the utah pioneers memorial day breakfast at the local park at 8:30 am. it just happened to be 8:30 am so b and i went over to the park and ate an eggs, ham, pancake, and hot chocolate breakfast with a bunch of escalante locals. while we were there, we ended up eating with one of the town's most prominent citizens and a former berkley paleontologist. the berkley guy told us about how he bought this crazy house that had originally been a pioneer home and grainery that was then subsumed in a updated, expanded home that comprised the original home and grainery and the "new" sections of the home. he took us on a tour of the house, which was indeed crazy. some of the rooms were half finished, had doors that didn't fit, had dirt floors, had slanted ceilings, had huge, old stoves that didn't work, or showers that weren't hooked up to a waterline, and bathrooms that were meant to be walked through to reach another room. it was wild, and there was so much junk it. but a lot of cool old furniture and stuff. eventually he wants to turn it into a museum. we wished him luck on that project.

it turned out that we were in escalante during it's heritage festival so we went to the high school to attend a presentation on escalante architecture (there's lots of neat old homes, barns, ect there). and they were also selling arts and crafts there. brian even got to help set up chairs. while we were there, an extremely nice couple found out that we were in a bad way (since our tent was soaking wet and none of the hotels had vacancies) and offered to let us spend the night at their house. they were an older couple and were so generous. it seemed like something that would happen in a different time. but escalante just seemed like the sort of place in which something like that would still happen.

it cleared up that afternoon, so brian and i went to the petrified forest state park.

a view from a high up ledge. it gave me a bit of vertigo being close to that edge.

brian birding.

a nice piece of petrified wood.

that's my hand. it's supposed to look like i'm getting a splinter.

after we looked around the petrified forest we went birding. we saw some super cool birds including, but not limied to the black headed grosbeak (a new one for us), the yellow breated chat (another new one for us), the bullock's oriole, and the western tanager.



that night we went to the escalante heritage festival community play. it was written by a man in escalante and told the history (or part of it) of the town and some of its humorous episodes. it had always been a dream of brian's that he would just wind up in a small town and happen upon a community theater production. and boy did brian's dreams come true. now it's his dream that he'll come to a small town and happen upon a community theater production and not fall asleep during it.

saturday night we stayed at the very, very kind couple's home. and it was such a luxurious sleep after not getting any sleep the night before. the next morning we got up and went to church and said good bye to our new-found escalante friends. during the rest of the day, we did some more exploring and hiking around the monument. we saw some new birds, walked around in some amazing places, met some interesting people, and got rained on some more. the pictures below show some of the highlights.

this shows the sky when the storm clouds were brewing. it rained every day we were there. apparently it hardly ever rains there in may like this. the locals were really glad to have the rain--so it made it seem ok that we couldn't make it out to the slot canyons we had wanted to hike through.

this was a view as we were nearing canyonlands national park. the piles of clay/sand were amazing. i couldn't believe the colors. some of it even looks purple.

this is me on top of a sand rock peak we climbed up. you could see a valley on either side of the top.

this is me in a small slot canyon we saw.

brian was so happy when we made it just barely into capitol reef national park. it turns out that the paved road that took us to the park turned into an unpaved road as soon as you hit the park. we had thought we might drive back home through capitol reef until we saw that it was unpaved.

this is b in a slot canyon that we just happened upon on our own while we were out hiking around.

sunday night we decided we'd sleep in the car. our tent was still wet, the hotels were still full, and it seemed like too much to stay with that nice couple for a second night. so we ate our canned chili in the car and then tried to stretch out as best as possible in the front two seats of our geo prizm. as you can probably imagine it was another long night. we didn't sleep well again, but at least we weren't wet, and it was nice to "wake up" in the morning to see the sun coming up over the rock mountains.

monday morning we went on a hike to a waterfall. the hike was so delightful. the scenery was beautiful (it was in a red rock canyon along a creek) and we even saw some old fremont people graineries and pictoraphs (they're over 800 years old). we saw some new birds again, and the waterfall area was refreshing and picturesque. below are some pictures of the hike.

the blossoming cactus pictures. i loved all the varieties.







the pictographs--see the three people holding hands.

as soon as we finished the hike it started raining again. so, fittingly, we left escalante in the rain. driving through the mountains in the dixie national forest we ran into some snow and hail, but it soon cleared up and it was sunny the rest of the way home.

we had such a good time over the weekend. nothing really turned out the way we had planned, but that was part of the fun. we're definitely planning on going back sometime when we can make it to the slot canyons we wanted to see. there's an arts festival there in september--so maybe that's when we'll go back...