The Next Chapter

Tuesday, September 20th, 2022

In 2 days it will be autumn. It is becoming cold in the Colorado mountains, and so it is time to move on. I have been high in the mountains for 2 and 1/2 months. Summer is over. There is no turning back the seasons. Life is a one way trip.

The campground is nearly empty now. The camp hosts have packed their gear away in preparation for departure this weekend. The few campers still here are mostly those staying a single night as they migrate back to their permanent homes.

Early tomorrow I leave Grand Mesa, driving down the switchbacks toward Grand Junction and then on into Utah, following the Colorado River. The first destination will be Moab, about 3 hours distant and 4,000 feet lower in elevation. As I leave the temperature will be about 46 degrees, but by the time I reach Moab, it will be 73. That is a cool day there. The forecast for later in the week is low to mid 80s. I will pack the long sleeve shirts and jeans away, and relocate shorts and cooler wear. And just like that, in 3 hours, things will change as fast as turning the page to a new chapter.

I hope to drive a great arc across Utah, visiting Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Bryce Canyon National Parks over the next month. I lived for 8 months in Park City, Utah back in 1992 and 1993, but have never visited the southern part of the state. So, this will all be new. I will be hiking a lot, and using the Canon SLR camera to take landscape photographs.

It will be a big adventure with lots of rock and sand, wind, sun, and heat. There will be less rain, and sometimes rattlesnakes for which to keep an eye peeled. Eventually, the cool temperatures will catch up, and I will move down to the Grand Canyon, and eventually further south. There I will most likely run into a new species, the Snowbird. That scares me more than rattlesnakes.