Sunday 10/23; Kanab, Utah.Well, the little propane heater in the camper broke. Darn!
Yesterday we packed up camp and left Nevada for Utah. Is this the most beautiful state in the country? If not, it's on the short list, that's for sure. The rocks become so colorful, so weird in their textures and shapes; the light gets more dramatic; everything changes in Utah. I love the little Mormon towns and farms; they all seem so idyllic and perfect in layout and form. Jack dropped me off here at a little mom-and-pop hotel in this small town of Kanab, and my friend Pat showed up shortly thereafter. Pat brought a friend who's recently moved to St.George Utah from California, to join us for lunch before she had to head back. Jack left for his hike to the Wave which is an hour's drive from here, or should be normally. However, the storms from last week brought so much rain that a road was washed out and he needs to get there via another route, adding time. Hopefully all will work out for him and he'll get some good pictures; he'll be back here to join us tomorrow night.
Pat and I had a great day today. First stop was Best Friends Animal Shelter. What ever you're thinking, it's not. This place is set on over 3,000 acres (yes, three thousand) of some of the most spectacular Utah land imaginable. The setting alone is enough to make it worth the time. The road winds through this huge ex-ranch amongst red, pink, white and gold swirly cliffs, mountains and meadows, hawks circling overhead, river below, cottonwoods and aspens turning bright yellow and orange. There are horse pastures and barns scattered amongst the rocks and trees. Lots of westerns were filmed there including the Lond Ranger "hi-ho silver Away" scene on top of this rock overlooking everything. Today Silver was gone, replaced by a big beautiful hawk. Anyway, they give you a 90 minute tour by bus, and it takes that long to drive through the place. There are 1,700 animals there, the largest in the country or world depending on what you read. Their goal is to save Utah animals from being killed due to homelessness, and they take dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, birds, rabbits, pigs; perhaps not reptiles and amphibians but everything else. A wondrous place. 300 people work there, plus thousands of volunteers that come from all over the country just to be there. Quite amazing in this fairly remote area. So, they drive you down this spectacular road that could be set in a national park for its beauty, but up the little driveways are building after building of animals and their caretakers. Every building we saw was immaculate, and filled with happy animals being spoiled by employees and volunteers. I hope to come back someday and volunteer and get some serious animal-time in. We spent the morning only, and didn't volunteer, since the day was gorgeous and we wanted to explore the area some more. Unless you volunteer there's not time to see all the animals, the place is so huge. I did get to cuddle a few cats and horses, but not enough. I do believe as they do, that a society good to its animals will hopefully be a good place to live if you are a human, as well.
This is Pat's first time to Utah and I think she's gone through 4 rolls of film today. It's so good for the soul to see such beauty and natural harmony. She's a bit amazed at how spectacular it is. If you've never been to Red Rock country there's no way to adequately describe it.
Last time Pat and I went somewhere that I knew and she didn't it was Maui and we both took scuba lessons. We both loved it and I scuba'd while there then gave it up because I met Jack, whereas Pat continued on and has done scuba trips all over the world since then, is a Master Diver and Instructor, and will have done 500 dives on her Cozumel trip in December. So look out, she'll probably buy up all of Utah or something, now that I introduced her to it.
Next we went to this area of corally-pink sand dunes. They were beautiful dunes and unfortunately for us, the ATV's are allowed there so it was noisy. Also the soft pristine sand is then marked with their tracks everywhere, ruining the beauty. We climbed a giant pink dune, but they drive them so fast that it seems likely that one could come zipping over the top at you before they'd see you. Not too good a situation. I know that ATVs are lots of fun, but it made it unpleasant for us to be hiking there.
Then we found out what they call a margarita here. Pat took a sip and her face contorted in the most unusual ways as her voice tried to explain so many problems at once. I thought I'd be calling Margarita 911. Clearly, the Utah scenery has it all over the bartenders.
Tomorrow we go to Zion! Can't wait!