As harsh and lonely as the landscape around us is, we watched the sunrise to a land that is also stunningly beautiful. The mesas, buttes, and mountains that rise majestically upward from the high (5000 feet above sea level) desert are dressed in vivid colors instead of vegetation, and the rocks and formations lend themselves to all kinds of musings about what kind of shape you happen to be looking at.
And then the sun rises higher.
This is the desert, so the night got down to 66 or so. But hold onto your hat when the sun gets serious about its business. How hot did it get? By 2 pm, our thermometer, nestled in the shade of one of the bunk ends, was reading 109. Yeah, yeah, we know, it’s a dry heat. But opening the trailer door felt like entering a blast furnace. And the light was the kind of intensity that made sunglasses an absolute necessity. It’s the kind of heat that demands your full attention. I attached our sun reflector sheets onto the pull out sections of the trailer and thanked God (and Vicki for putting her foot down and demanding it) for the AC in the trailer, which dropped the temp down to a bearable 85.
We had planned for one of our two days here to be a rest and refit day. When the AC in the van quit yesterday, we were glad for the chance to get it repaired. I looked through the Moab Yellow pages, held my breath, and made the call to a AAA-recommended repair shop. We had 7 ounces of Freon left (out of 45), so they recharged the system. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the leak. I had them change the oil and top off fluids. The bill was just under $200, and the AC will get us through the desert. While they repaired the van, I read Agatha Christie in the hot shade of a tree outside the shop.
While in Moab, I got the van washed and bought some groceries, then headed home, where Vicki was washing a couple of loads of laundry and reading, and Joy and Eli were in the pool. The gusty wind had ripped the reflector sheets off of the trailer, so I bought some more and applied more clothespins. After lunch, we enjoyed an afternoon siesta while the AC in the trailer held off the dogs to the tune of 89 degrees. We enjoyed the downtime, reading and relaxing in the “cool”, and had tacos for supper.
After supper, we drove 35 miles into Canyonlands NP to see the canyons in sunset. They were vast and deep – beautiful, humbling, and deathly quiet. After the sun set, we drove on under the nearly full moonlight and reached Grand View Overlook. In the desert, you might not be able to remember your name, but the moon paints everything in the kind of light that paints a shadow. We could see deep into the ancient canyon floor below us, and I took several 30 second exposure shots that resulted in pictures that looked for all the world like we had taken them in daylight.
After gaping at the moonlit canyons from the overlook, we dodged howling “moose” mice scurrying in the road (they roar like lions to scare away predators and eat the heads off scorpions – they are NOT to be trifled with!) and made the 35 mile trek home, where we slept like the dead in anticipation of a hot day of exploring the Arches National Park.
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