The story before us

What was supposed to be a honeymoon to Brazil and Argentina turned into Plan B of a three-week road trip in California which we then canceled due to strict stay-at-home orders in CA which led us to plan C...Utah.

To be completely honest, I was not that excited so I decided to call this a mini-moon because I was still set we would have a real one next year after we are vaccinated from COVID. Now looking back, Utah was a pleasant surprise; it felt like a reset button that grounded me.

We flew into SLC and acquired a rental car and drove to Moab, UT the next day which would be our home base for the next week. We went to 4 national parks (one in Western Colorado the rest in Utah) and I can't wait for you to see these pictures.

Our first stop was Capitol Reef National Park in the historic Fruita district. Some of the rocks around here are even a bit older than the first dinosaur period estimated around 270 million years ago. This area has been inhabited for thousands of years by Paleo Native Americans, then later Fremont Native Americans, and much later a Mormon settlement in the late 1800s was able to live off and farm thanks to the Fremont River that ran through Capitol Reef. It's kinda crazy to imagine people from that time living in this landscape.

We hiked on the Rim Overlook trail which the first image was our final destination. Below you can see I am bundled up, it was in the 30s but once we got hiking I even started sweating and resorted to hiking in just my base layer shirt. If you notice above me there is this tremendous fog. That is one thing I found surprising that in a desert there was SO much humidity. Every morning each National Park we went to experienced some form of heavy fog. It turns out Utah has some heavy inversions, where warm air from the geography traps the cold air from the wintry weather. Due to inversions, air pollution, and the location of being between Mountains is why Salt Lake City is known for having bad air quality which is something I learned recently.

Look how cute my man is! He is the reason we went to Utah. Like I said I was not in love with the idea of being cold on my mini-moon but I was just moved by all the rock formations that looking back I am glad we came. Wait till you see all the Mesa Verdes and Buttes in Canyonlands in the next post.

We ended our hike seeing a family of Big Horn Sheep in the distance. Thankfully I brought my binoculars this time and was able to see them up close. The dad of the family had HUGE horns, definitely would not mess with them so keeping a good distance between wildlife with horns like that is a good idea, also we are in their home and should be respectful. Below is a petroglyph around 300 AD (different from a pictograph because petroglyphs are carved into stone whereas pictographs are painted on). If you zoom in there are bighorn sheep and deer surrounding these human-like figures. It was the oldest form of art and/or news I have ever seen and gave me chills to be in the same spot as the artist thousands of years ago.

This first hike was a reminder of the story before us (a digitally plugged in civilization) and how a story leaves a mark in this world in the form of fossils, layers in the rock, and figures carved into stone. It made me reflect on what kind of mark I wanted to leave behind in the world but also how I felt so lucky to spend life traveling to these places that had immense storytelling.

The next blog post is going to be about Canyonlands National Park stay tuned!