then it was through the scenic state of Utah! It's almost impossible to get good pictures from a moving car, so here are some compromises. This snow bank is already 6 ft. high, so that snow is probably getting 12' of air. I'd never seen anything like it.
a really short tunnel
Utah is the best! Escalante National Monument. See the road winding theough there? Later it traverses a ridge only about 20 ft. wide. It's called Devil's Backbone.
down in the canyons
the sage (which smells different here than in Bishop) was blooming
the river
we tried to go in a slot canyon, but it was too hard to get to any. The closest we got was right here, where I took this picture. We could see one.
The scenic road goes back up! Here's some aspens on a snowy mountain (you'll just have to take my word for it that it was snowy)
Joe's Valley, UT. I love it here, but it was still a little chilly.
Triassic - Joe's warmer brother. There are pictographs!
Let me preface these last pics with the fact that I have an irrational dislike for Colorado. Everyone who lives there loves it so much, that they never stop talking about it. Climbing movies always have a segment about it. Every issue of every climbing magazine talks about it. The people in Boulder, in particular, are known to be cocky and egotistical (not to say I don't know people from Boulder who are awesome). Blah blah blah. The New has the best rock in the country (not only do I believe that, but every once in a while, climbing mags have a "where is the best climbing in the country?" article. The New always comes out on top), and Colorado is stupid.So Micah and I chose a super obscure area in the desert half of the state and tried it out. It was awesome (but still not as good as the New). As for the Coloradans, we didn't meet a single one.
beautiful! Lots of rocks right off the road.
if you enlarge this photo, you can see the cool stripes in those mountains.
-Stella
