Journey to Utah in 2013, part 10: the Markagunt Plateau, escaping the snow, and the Mojave Desert

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THERE'S MORE WINTER WHERE THAT CAME FROM

The next morning our windows were covered with ice and windblown snow, casting the interior of the RV into a fuzzy dimness. Yawning and peering out through one tiny clear patch in a side window, I saw two tents I’d spotted across from us the afternoon before, now covered with snow and ice. I wondered who had slept in these tents and how their night had passed. And would I ever be the kind of person who could sleep outside in such cold weather? I hoped so; it seemed like a useful skill to have. My current sleeping bag was not going to cut it in a situation like that, though. I’d need to find another one. I yawned again, feeling the lack of sleep. I wondered if Bev was going to want to stay longer at Bryce Canyon. Would the temperature drop even lower tonight?

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Journey to Utah in 2013, part 9: driving, walking, writing in a snowstorm at Bryce Canyon National Park

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WINTER REMEMBERED

I’d fallen asleep early the night before, too tired to keep my eyes on the pages of my book. Sleep was heavy and luxuriously deep. When I climbed out of my down sleeping bag the next morning, I met the chill of cold air inside the RV. Bev and I both shivered as we ate breakfast. We looked out at the world beyond our window and saw that snow was imminent. Both of us have lived in wintry places, and the signs of approaching frozen precipitation were unmistakable.

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Journey to Utah in 2013, part 8: Queen's Garden Trail, Navajo Trail, and the Utah Prairie Dog at Bryce Canyon National Park

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MORNING IN THE LIGHT OF AN APPROACHING STORM

I’d fallen asleep thinking about hoodoos, and I woke up thinking about hoodoos. They were nearby! I was going to see them again today! My excitement reminded me of being a child on a camping trip at the beach. I remember opening my eyes in the morning on those long-ago vacations, my first feeling of the day a thrill of pleasure simply from knowing the ocean was close at hand. There was something about the rim of Bryce Canyon that felt like the edge of an ocean. I’d noticed it the afternoon before, when I first looked out over the amphitheater. Maybe the millions of years during which the Claron Formation had been deposited by water had left an energetic imprint on the land. Certainly the hoodoos had already reminded me of coral reefs.

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Journey to Utah in 2013, part 7: arriving at Bryce Canyon National Park

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EXPERIMENTAL LIVING

We left Coral Pink Sand Dunes SP around mid-morning, driving north on Utah State Route 89, a road that took us past idyllic scenes of farmhouses framed by cottonwoods against a rocky backdrop. Orderville (pictured above) looked especially charming that day, nestled beneath cliffs of Navajo Sandstone and exposures of Mancos Shale where Route 89 crossed over the Virgin River. The Mancos Shale, a deposit of shale and sandstone that was laid down between 94 and 85 million years ago, marks where the Cretaceous Seaway advanced and retreated over the land. Also known as the Western Interior Seaway, this relatively shallow inland sea once divided the continent of North America in half. Things have changed a lot since those days. 

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Journey to Utah in 2013, part 6: Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

This post is part of a series. Click here to read the first post. To see the gallery, click here.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER WONDER OF THE COLORADO PLATEAU

By this point in the trip I'd become infatuated with the Colorado Plateau, especially the Navajo Sandstone with its ancient desert origins. As we left Zion National Park behind, Bev told me of a Utah state park not far away where I could see huge sand dunes. Did I want to spend a night or two there? Of course I did! We drove there – it wasn’t very far, just an hour – and found ourselves in a valley filled with orange-pink sand. This was Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. Just like most other desert places do, it triggered a dreamlike state in me as soon as I arrived.

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