From The Land of the Gods

We're in the middle of our long-awaited trip west, where our most frequent utterance is "Wow!" followed shortly by "Double Wow." Beyond that, it will take a better writer than me to do verbal justice to this land, so I'll just summarize our travels and share a few photos.

After a painless flight to Vegas and a half hour lost to congestion there, we (Ray and I with friends Linda and Rich) were finally on our way to Zion Natl Park. As the land opened up and vast vistas spread out before us filled with giant formations I'd never even imagined, I could feel my blood pressure drop and my breathing expand. Even Ray relaxed! He even turns off his crackberry for an hour or two now and then. We spent the first night in lovely Springdale, Utah, at the foot of Zion Park, and the second at the park lodge-both very nice. We walked along the Virgin River or just stood still gaping at the rocks towering above us--and sometimes at the climbers who dared to scale them. The weather was perfect.

Exiting the park via the Mt Carmel Scenic highway, with its hairpin turns, was unforgettable. A few hours later we arrived at Grand Canyon Lodge in rain and fog. I was astonished. Who ever heard of RAIN at the Grand Canyon? isn't this desert country? Soon it stopped and we walked in the fog out one short but sobering path to the end of a promontory, where the clouds lifted enough for a few frustrating glimpses of what lay beyond. We went to bed a bit disappointed, which made the next morning all the more wonderful, when we saw the canyon in all its glory under a brilliant sun. After walking the paths by the lodge, we drove through a gorgeous pine-and-aspen forest to other outposts, marveling at the vastness and variety of the land forms. Then we returned to the lodge, snagged chairs on the porch, put our feet up, and decided what music to put on our ipods for the sunset. (I chose Handel's "Zadok the Priest" performed by The Opera Band, which repeats the word "Rejoice" over and over in a glorious crescendo. It was perfect.) That hour watching the canyon formations glow and darken as the sun descended was one of the most magical and unforgettable of my life.

Today is the first of two days at Bryce Canyon. Each of these parks is so glorious and so completely unique. At Zion you are humbled and awed by the majesty and power of the rock walls rising hundreds of feet over your head; at the Grand Canyon you look out and down at the endless beauty below and the flat emptiness of the South Rim beyond; here at Bryce you are again staring down, now at the tops of "hoodoos" that look like giant sand dribble castles left by giants playing in the dirt. Ray and Rich descended to the canyon bottom, a short walk down and a long steep climb up. Linda and I were content to stroll the path along the rim.

Tonight we'll return to the park from our motel nearby to see the stars. Time for me to get out of the room and take a walk in this glorious place before it gets dark. We'll spend two nights here, then on to vegas. Right now it's hard to imagine enjoying its man-made "beauty," but I'm sure we'll manage to have fun!