Island in the Sky

We had just arrived in Moab. Ed was walking Benton; I was hanging out on the street next to Thistle. I must have looked forlorn although I was appreciating the first sunshine we'd seen all day, when a bright red pickup truck pulled up and stopped next to me. The window was rolled down and a man, leaning over his wife and hanging out the window, said, "I sacrificed a chicken for this sunshine." I grinned and thanked him profusely. He laughed. I laughed. He drove on. He made my day.

From there our tasks of resupply and regrouping began to fall into place. We found a good lunch spot with Internet. We located a place to fill up with water getting our bath and kitchen systems water-functional again; we filled our diesel tank; we found hot showers for bodies not having seen clean for way too long; we discovered our night's camping spot along the Colorado River. We were set. Tomorrow we do laundry, grocery shop and figure out where we're headed next. And the sun shines! There's nothing like all systems ready for the next adventure. We're good for another week before needing to resupply. The road calls our names...

We decide to return to Canyonlands. Canyonlands has three sections. We were in the Needles section before coming to Moab. Now, after restocking, we explore Island in the Sky. Below is the  confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers.

See that road, hanging onto the cliff, about two-thirds from the bottom. That's a two day outback, 4-wheel drive adventure.

The third Canyonlands section is the Maze. Four-wheel drive territory and inaccessible to us in Thistle. We feel a little rugged vehicle envy right now. However, that's short lived as we begin to smell the scalloped potatoes baking in our oven. I pour a glass of wine. We settle in, closing up Thistle, tight and cozy from the cold night quickly settling in over the desert.

After exploring Arches, we plan to return to Needles in Canyonlands. When we landed there last week we were too sick to hike, so return we must.

~~~

"Love is a powerful tool, and maybe, just maybe, before the last little town is corrupted and the last of the unroaded and undeveloped wildness is given over to dreams of profit, maybe, it will be love, finally, love for the land for its own sake and for what it holds of beauty and joy and spiritual redemption that will made (wilderness) not a battlefield but a revelation."

~ T. H. Watkins

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