Coming live from Kanab Public Library! Our road trip so far…
Day One:
Well, so much for live travel blogging! I am sitting in my hotel room at the Red Hills Best Western in Kanab at 11 pm on our first day of travel. I haven’t had access to the internet to do any blog posting. Instead I am sitting here doing the very next best thing: recounting the day’s events.
Today we left Denver at about 9:50 am and headed west on the I-70. After the clouds and snow of the weekend it was great to see the blue sky and the sun shining. We stopped at Lake Dillon’s scenic over look so that I could stretch my legs and have a happy snap taken of me.
We went through a little bit of weather going over Vail pass, and we could see the definite signs that winter had arrived: fresh powder. The most beautiful scene was travelling through Glenwood Canyon. The highway follows the gushing Colorado River bordered by steep red cliffs. Snow had transformed the canyon – it looked as though some demented chef had decided to add some extra frosting. Frosted trees, and snow edged red rocks appeared wherever we looked. But we couldn’t stop. There was no space to pull over. This magical scene remain only in our memories.
Kevin took over the driving after our stop and fuel up at Fruita, a small town in Western Colorado. At the gas station we laughed at a large green T-Rex decorated with a Santa hat.
The minute I got into the passenger seat I was out. Talk about being sleepy. Kevin stopped a few times en route to take some gorgeous pictures of the afternoon light.
Night falls quickly here in the winter. We traveled through the dark, and tried to picture the landscape in the sun. Hillsides loomed as dark shadows on either side of us. There was a lot of snow. We traveled through some mist patches. Visibility was poor so we took it slowly. We filled up again at Richfield. The distances between services are vast, and there is nothing worse than running out of gas.
We arrived at our motel at about 10pm. We dived into a quickly prepared tuna and cheese sandwich. It sure tasted good.
First thing tomorrow morning we plan to visit the Kanab BLM office to organize permits for our hike into the Wave. We are a little concerned about the amount of snow that seems to be around. Access to the Wave is via dirt/ clay road that becomes extremely hazardous to navigate when wet and slushy. After we get the permits we basically have a day to explore around Kanab. We plan (slushiness aside) to camp at the Wave access to hike into the Wave on Wednesday.
