The last of our whirlwind post-Christmas Utah swing through three national parks, a state park, and BLM land, Zion is always a crowd favorite. And the crowds were out in force. Pandemic or not, holiday season or not, Zion was packed. Zion Canyon itself was closed without a reservation, so we confined our visit to the eastern side of the park. Still absolutely stunning!

Paula and I visited east Zion on December 30, 2020 and remained confined to our car except for photo taking to remain Covid safe. I was thrilled for her to see the beauty within the park. While I love everything about Zion National Park, the east side has an appeal to me because it is so different from Zion Canyon. Most of the granite structures are white instead of red. There is usually less traffic on the east side, but not this day, as you weren’t allowed onto a shuttle into the canyon without a pre-approved reservation. So everyone crowded to the east.

The drive along the Zion-Mount Carmel road (Hwy 9) is breathtaking, including through the mile-long tunnel and the twisty, winding road down to the canyon level. We did manage to find a picnic table with some solitude for a nice lunch in a pleasant breeze.

We were there a total of about five hours and left late in the afternoon to head back to our home in western Colorado. About that… on the drive back we learned that the AirBnB host might have contracted Covid from family over Christmas while we were gone.

Pivot to an emergency home search, and an abrupt change of plans. Instead of spending the last four days of our AirBnB contract there, we found a hotel room in Grand Junction where we stayed, and Paula worked, including on New Year’s Day. She has taught me to be adaptive and quick on my feet leading the nomad life.

This gallery includes pictures from the east side of Zion National Park in Utah. Enjoy the photos, and please feel free to comment.

Once all was said and done, the snowfall total was 10 inches.

The snow started about a half hour before we arrived at our destination, the Slot Canyons Inn of Escalante, Utah. Paula and I planned a post Christmas 2020 trip to the national parks of Utah. Our home base was to be this centrally located, cozy bed and breakfast. By the time we were settled in our room there was already 3-4 inches on the deck outside, and it continued through the night and into the next day, Monday December 28th.

When we awoke, we were greeted with a glorious, colorful sunrise and a true winter wonderland. It was beautiful! We had plans to go to Bryce Canyon, but we didn’t care. The snow covered trees, bushes and surrounding red rocks of Escalante were stunning. We spent the day enjoying the beauty, mostly inside in front of the southwestern style fireplace, but occasionally venturing out for a walk and big smiles.

If you ever find yourself in the region, we can heartily endorse the Slot Canyons Inn. Our host Joette was attentive to our every need and her lodge and cabins are charming, clean and inviting. Being a bed and breakfast there wasn’t a fridge or microwave in the room, but she offered use of the main kitchen for our comfort. With the cold and snow, Paula and I created a makeshift freezer on our private deck. Whoever the next guest was likely found the burritos we forgot when we checked out a couple days later. We laughed and laughed.

Joette’s son worked through the day and evening to clear the road to the main highway, and the next morning we were able to resume our national park exploration. The snow at Bryce Canyon and Zion was something I have always wanted to see. We will, however, always remember the romantic day we spent snowed in.

This gallery includes pictures from the Slot Canyons Inn of Escalante, Utah. Enjoy the photos, and please feel free to comment.

Supported by community fundraising efforts, Utah’s Snow Canyon State Park is in the process of developing a trail designed to inform visitors about the Mojave desert tortoise. The Tortoise Education Trail is scheduled to be the first new trail built within the park in more than a decade.

The trail will showcase perhaps the most compelling and hotly debated creature found in Snow Canyon. Park naturalist Jenny Dawn Stucki said that park managers have spent years brainstorming a way to answer visitor questions about the desert tortoise while highlighting the importance of recreating responsibly within its habitat.

“It’s all tied together,” she said. “Knowing they’re here and understanding more about them helps to enhance appreciation of our landscape across the board.”

The project is currently in the planning and design process; Stucki said that many components still need to come together before breaking ground. When complete, the trail will feature several informational panels providing visitors with insight on the desert tortoise and its habitat, diet, family life, adaptations, survival and conservation, as well as ways to be mindful and appreciative of its presence in the park.

Cameron Rognan, administrator of the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan, highlighted the importance of visitor education in the preservation of vulnerable species like the desert tortoise as the recreational demand on southwest Utah’s public lands continues to rise. By providing both designated trails and learning opportunities, Rognan said that Snow Canyon and other parks can enhance the visitor experience while protecting native wildlife and habitat.

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The best kept secret among the Mighty Five of Utah’s national parks, Capitol Reef is no slouch when it comes to dynamic scenery and backcountry adventure. It is remote for sure. You will likely find yourself traversing the landscape on dusty dirt roads with names like Notom Bullfrog, Grand Wash, Burr Trail Road, and Strike Valley.

Following a lovely day at Goblin Valley State Park, on December 26, 2020 Paula and I spent the night in Torrey, Utah at the cozy Capitol Reef Resort, then set out for a day of exploration. We took in the Scenic Drive from the Visitor Center through Fruita to Grand Wash, then checked out the Goosenecks trail for precarious views into the Fremont River canyon. Wow was it cold there with howling wind. We huddled together to stay warm.

We drove more than 40 miles on the Notom Bullfrog Road through the heart of the magnificent Waterpocket Fold, then connected with Burr Trail Road to climb the switchbacks to the top of the western rim of the Fold. We drove three miles up the 4wd Strike Valley Road, attempting to reach Upper Muley Twist, but recent flash floods had made the full distance impassable. Darn!

We also wanted to visit Cathedral Valley, but were once again stymied by an impassable road. The park ranger told us even a 4wd vehicle would sink in deep, dry sand. Still, we had a lovely day reveling in the otherworldly geology found in this remarkable park. Don’t miss it if you find yourself nearby.

This gallery includes pictures from the Grand Wash, the Scenic Drive, the Goosenecks Trail, Notom Bullfrog Road, as well as Burr Trail and Strike Valley. At the end of the day my Subaru was covered with a layer of red dust, a sign we had a wonderful time. Enjoy the photos, and please feel free to comment.

Believed to be evil, greedy, or mischievous, goblins are mythical creatures who bring trouble to humans, appearing in the folklore of multiple European cultures first attested in stories from the Middle Ages. Goblin Valley State Park, off Highway 24 at the San Rafael Swell in Utah includes an area where soft sandstone has eroded into interesting shapes, somewhat resembling these mythological goblins. In some spots the rock formations are close together and produce a maze-like playground ideal for exploration.

Paula and I visited Goblin Valley on December 26, 2020 on the first day of a five-day swing through canyon country in southern Utah. Most of our time there was spent walking in the Valley of Goblins, spanning nearly three square miles of free-roaming area that can be explored without need of rigid route finding. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit, having a great deal of fun. There were a lot of “wonder where this goes,” and “what’s over there?” comments throughout.

Late in the afternoon we also visited nearby Little Wild Horse Canyon, but didn’t go very far into the slots as dark was fast approaching. Paula was disappointed because she really wanted to experience a true slot canyon. We will find one for her as our future adventures continue.

When we left the area, we headed out on Scenic Highway 24 to Torrey, UT for our next day at Capitol Reef National Park. We were treated to a remarkable sunset along the way, with several stops for pictures. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Utah red rock country, so this trip brought back many fond memories of earlier excursions. It was so nice to share them now with Paula.

This gallery includes pictures from Goblin Valley State Park, Little Wild Horse Canyon, and a sunset along Highway 24. Enjoy the photos, and please feel free to comment.

Ch-ch-ch-ch changes. David Bowie wrote of change in 1971, the year I was a freshman in college. For Bowie, it was a reflective song about stepping out on your own. I thought of that song and played it in my head as I sat down to compose this post. Not quite two months ago I made a major spontaneous change in my own life. I packed up a couple weeks of belongings and hit the road to travel across the country and make good on a number pf promises I had made to myself about retirement.

In coming posts about my experiences you will learn about Paula. She is wonderful. She is engaging. She is intelligent, caring and beautiful. She is also the love of my life. I have joined her nomadic lifestyle and am thoroughly enjoying every moment. Since mid-December 2020 we have had a number of exciting adventures in three states. We have formed a strong bond over our love of Nature, the outdoors, wildlife, and national parks.

This first story from my new life is a portrayal of the first day. I awoke in the back of my Subaru in Albuquerque, NM and drove through the four corners region to meet Paula at her AirBnB in western Colorado. Along the way I saw Shiprock in New Mexico, traveled the stunningly beautiful Scenic Highway 64 and 191 through NM, AZ and UT, making a brief stop in Arches National Park, before reaching her and the best hug ever.

Enjoy the photos, feel free to comment below, and follow along. I have a whole lot more to tell you.

The southern half of Utah is canyon country, a land of aridity, sparse vegetation, and unique and scenically spectacular topography and geology. It is a land rich in sites of archaeological importance and parts of it are sacred to indigenous people. It is also mostly public land, owned by the American people, part of their national legacy, and for a century it has been contested terrain.

Frederick Swanson, in Wonders of Sand and Stone, tells the story of the century-long battles between those who would preserve large parts of this spectacular landscape and those who would dedicate them to “multiple use,” principally grazing, mining, dams, and oil and gas development.

The story begins early in the history of America’s national parks when Utah’s redrock country was virtually inaccessible except to a few intrepid explorers, prospectors, and reaches to the 21st century conflicts over Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

This century of struggle over public land use has led to five national parks and eight national monuments managed by the National Park Service; the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, also managed by the Park Service; and the recently diminished Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears monuments managed, if that is the appropriate verb, by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

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The Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter was assisting Utah Division of Wildlife Resource officers counting bighorn sheep when the crew spotted something mysterious from above.

“One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it,” said pilot Bret Hutchings. “He was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!’ And I was like, ‘what.’ And he’s like, ‘There’s this thing back there – we’ve got to go look at it!’”

The crew circled back and landed the helicopter to take a closer look. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Tucked in a red rock cove was a shiny metal monolith protruding from the ground.

“I’d say it’s probably between 10 and 12 feet-high,” Hutchings said. “We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it.”

Hutchings said it didn’t look like it was dropped into the ground from above. It was firmly planted there.

That said, the crew decided it didn’t appear there was any scientific purpose to it. Hutchings said it looked as if it was manmade – perhaps more of an art form than any kind of alien lifeform.

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Trish Jennings watched customers dining 6 feet apart outside her Bit & Spur Restaurant and Saloon on an evening in mid-August, missing the usual gregarious chatter of outdoor adventures.

Springdale, a small southwest Utah town sits just outside the gates of Zion National Park, and most of the restaurant’s customers arrived after a day exploring the park’s 2,000-foot-deep canyon. Jennings, 53, and her staff are accustomed to swapping hiking and camping stories with thousands of visitors every summer from all over the world, often forging new friendships.

For many residents like Jennings, those daily exchanges were essential to the town’s spirit, often making it seem bigger than a community of 660 people. But the COVID-19 pandemic — along with Springdale’s new social distancing measures and mask requirement — have given the easygoing, sociable town a subdued feeling this summer.

While tourists have steadily returned since the park reopened on May 13, there are still fewer than usual — 449,518 recreational visitors in July, down from 629,802 the same time last year, with few, if any, coming from outside the country — and the conversations in restaurants, shops and motels are shorter and more transactional. Many of the town’s elderly residents are staying home, avoiding the crowds at the park.

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On New Year’s Day in 2018, Paul Kehmeier and his father drove up Grand Mesa until they got to the county line, 10,000 feet above sea level. Instead of the three to five feet of snow that should have been on the ground, there wasn’t enough of a dusting to even cover the grass.

The men marveled at the sight, and Kehmeier snapped a photo of his dad, “standing on the bare pavement, next to bare ground.”

Here, on Colorado’s Western Slope, no snow means no snowpack. And no snowpack means no water in an area that’s so dry it’s lucky to get 10 inches of rain a year. A few months after taking the photo, Kehmeier stared across the land his family had tilled for four generations and made a harsh calculation: He could make more money selling his ranch’s water than working his land.

“In all my years of farming in the area, going back to about 1950, 2018 was the toughest, driest year I can remember,” said Paul’s father, Norman, who still does a fair share of the farm’s tractor work at 94.

This cluster of counties on Colorado’s Western Slope — along with three counties just across the border in eastern Utah — has warmed more than 2 degrees Celsius, double the global average. Spanning more than 30,000 square miles, it is the largest 2C hot spot in the Lower 48.

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