Tuesday, August 16
Balanced Rock
4AM, hello!, and I am up for Arches National Park. Eitan, who beforehand agrees-interest in joining me , immobile and snoring , so I leave him be. It is pitch black upon exiting Moab, Sunday morning, and not a car on the 191. Since 70 degrees I am in shorts and a tee-shirt and have the air conditioning "on" as I pass the deserted park-entrance (Arches open to the public 24/7, 365 days a year ) and curve up a windy rd on to the mesa. Adding some drama , my SUV informs me with a loud "beep" : no gas. I figure the fumes can get me to where I wish to be, and back , but my calculation based on nothing other than a hope , and a prayer, with a slight anxiety expressed in my mid-section.
And so here I behold Balanced Rock . The height of this magnificent ancient geo formation about 128 feet, with the balancing rock rising 55 feet above the base. The big rock on top is the size of three school buses and weighs 3,577 tons. Until recently, Balanced Rock had a companion - a similar, but smaller balanced rock named "Chip Off The Old Block", which fell during the winter of 1975/1976. It is a spiritual place and I remain in darkness , awaiting sunrise. To pass the time I do some deep breathing and yoga exercises. Magic, man. Plus I make it to a gas station.
at 16:30
Dead Horse Lookout, Utah
View of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park from Dead Horse Point.
The plateau, where I stand now, surrounded by 2,000 ft cliffs with a narrow neck of land maybe 30 yards wide connecting the mesa to the main plateau. It was easy for cowboys to fence off the neck and round up wild horses. Legend has it that one group of horses left fenced and eventually died of thirst in view of the Colorado River - hence the name. This where final scene of Thelma & Louise filmed.
at 16:17
Grand County
Our first night in Moab, >100 degrees, Sonnet, Madeleine and I explore a local park behind the fancy part of town (Eitan remains in the room, smartly, to watch TV). Our reward : a brilliant sunset followed by the moonrise, pictured, which otherwise appears much bigger than my camera records
The Biblical name "Moab" refers to an area of land located on the eastern side of the Jordan River. Some believe the name used because of William Pierce, the first postmaster, believing that the biblical Moab and this part of Utah were both "the far country". However, others think the name has Paiute origins, referring to the word "moapa" meaning mosquito. Some of the area's early residents attempted to change the city's name because in the Christian Bible, Moabites are demeaned as incestuous and idolatrous. One petition in 1890 had 59 signatures and requested a name change to Vina. Another effort attempted to change the name to Uvadalia. (Source: City of Moab website)
at 16:07
Monday, August 15
La Sal Jnct
at 16:30
Flume
at 16:08
Gateway
Gateway Canyon Resort, and its surrounding area, owned by John Hendricks, the founder of the Discovery Channel (Hendricks got his start, in '85, with a $5 M investment from Allen & Co, whose partner - Botts & Co. - my first opportunity in London. Allen's investment worth $ billions ). Hendricks' father, a home builder, knew of the area and , since public land, told his son that, should he ever have some money, he must own it. The rest of the story, as they say, history.
"Ma'am, I don't know much about thoroughbreds - horses or women. Them that I did know, I never liked. They're too nervous and spooky; they scare me. But you're one high-bred filly that don't. 'Course, I don't know what you're talking about half the time."
“I've had three wives, six children and six grandchildren and I still don't understand women”
at 15:18
44 Road
at 15:04
Friday, August 12
Storage Drums, Cascade St, Montrose
Silver recounts Quaker boarding school - The Grove, in Maine, before Vassar : 9:30PM lights-out! No matches (cigarettes!). No boys (heaven, forbid!). Students achieving certain minimum exceptional performance allowed to pursue extra-curicular studies and Silver chose . . vocabulary. She learned one-hundred words a week and has not forgotten one.
at 03:29
Russell Stover
at 02:33
Thursday, August 11
Blue Lake
We hike into Sneffel Wilderness while our trail takes us to the first of three Blue Lakes : this one 10,980 feet. The lake unnatural blue , filled by a stream from the towering Mt Sneffels, which has some scant snow. The water freezing cold - I last a few moments before too painful - while Eitan does a full-on cannonball then scrambles out, Dear Reader, in something near shock.
"Mount Sneffels is a fourteen thousand foot mountain peak located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of the northern San Juan Mountains, about 5 miles west of Ouray. The mountain named after the volcano Snæfell, which is located on the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. That mountain and its glacier, Snæfellsjökull, which caps the crater like a convex lens, were featured in the Jules Verne novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth. An area on the western flank of Mount Sneffels gives the appearance of volcanic crater. Seen from the Dallas Divide on State Highway 62, Mount Sneffels is one of the most photographed mountains in Colorado."
at 15:11
Drive By Looting
The riots : like everybody, I am upset by the ransacking of London and other UK cities. This is violence fueled by boredom and opportunity : looters can do it, so they do. There is no Great Cause, like suffrage or the Arab uprising, motivating these people. Where is the imagination? Thatcher's coal miners thuggish yet fighting for their livelihood . Blacks in America , equality. We see criminals stealing electronics. We hear inarticulate, bored , yuf who believe they are owed yet fail to get educated or working. They contribute nothing yet receive health care, opportunity, and roads to leave. Cameron has it right, quoted in the NYT : "The sight of those young people running down streets, smashing windows, taking property, looting, laughing as they go, the problem of that is a complete lack of responsibility, a lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing, a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals."
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
at 14:12
Wednesday, August 10
Lovin' It
at 02:40
Tuesday, August 9
The Shakespeares Sleep In ~ Riots And Cleaning
at 16:58
Corn Festival, Y'All
at 15:27
Feeling 44
As I am up at 4:30AM for some horrible reason , I rouse myself from bed to sneak from the hotel to the SUV to drive to Black Canyon. The temperature a perfect 70 degrees , despite the hour , while HW 50 deserted. I turn into the National Park and curve along the mesa, passing the empty ranger station, a number of look-outs, the closed visitor center and eventually Painted Wall , pictured, where I set up my camera and await pre-dawn. The gorge, cut by the Gunnison River over millions of years, puts my balls into my stomach : one slip and it is a long ways down. I jump about the rocks with my tripod in a reckless fashion that would make Sonnet scream.
"At a sheer 2,300 feet, the Painted Wall, a prominent segment of the Black Canyon's north rim, is Colorado's highest cliff. The darker rock is Black Canyon Gneiss. The bold white and pink bands are granites and pegmatites injected during Middle Proterozoic (1.4 Ga) through Cambrian (~510 Ga) intrusions. Large books of white mica (muscovite) and crystals of pink potassium feldspar and translucent quartz give the pegmatites their lustrous pink look.
at 03:54
Painted Wall @ Sunrise
at 03:32
Soccer Camp
And no vacation would be a vacation without football for Eitan. Thanks to Stan, Eitan joins 75 kids, ages 10 to 14, for three hours of evening action, Wednesday to Friday. The well groomed pitches offer sweeping views of the mesa and Rockies. Two-thirds of the players female. Photo by Sonnet.
at 02:58
Big J
Big J's Pawn Shop on Main Street across from the Coffee Trader, the best coffee in Montrose. The founder-proprietors Fong and Will, both gay, from Las Vegas where Fong responsible for Harrahs Hotels entertainment and Will same for MGM Grand. In short, better than a sitcom. The duo moved to the Western Slope twelve-years ago, buying a derelict house, and turning it into their vision : a stately Victorian with a lovely coffee garden filled with flowers, tables , a few lounge chairs and a happy vibe. Many new proprietors followed their lead and, today, downtown Montrose celebrates a Main Street festival every Thursday evening of summertime.
at 02:35