I had enough time though. Michal didn't get away from Kelowna as early as planned last Thursday. He didn't get to my place until almost 10. Meanwhile Eric, one of my two French couch surfers, was suffering from resistant cold and we had filled a bowl of half boiling water and eucalyptus oil for him. He had his face over the bowl with a towel over his head to trap the fumes in. He looked a bit like the Elephant Man. Problem was, I had added too much eucalyptus oil and the fumes were frying our nose hairs. We were playing a game of seeing who could last the longest breathing the fumes when Michal arrived. He hit it off with the boys well so I left them chatting enthusiastically while I slept for an hour and a half, the only sleep I got that day.
At 1:30am we set off in Michal's jeep for Seattle and made it to SeaTac airport around 4am. We reclined our seats and tried sleeping for an hour in the most contorted positions, something no chiropractor would recommend unless he wanted to increase his practice. So the day of arrival began in the chilly morning air of an ugly parking lot already aching for sleep.
The shuttle picked us up around 4:50 shortly after Michal discovered he had misplaced his wallet and ID. He found it at the last moment. I wasn't sure I'd be able to climb into the shuttle but I did. It wasn't pretty. Not long after we were airborne and headed for somewhat sunnier skies. The airline offered us complimentary juices and Trick-r-Treat-sized packages of peanuts for $3. The feature movie was "Snacks on a Plane".
Michal and I had only brought carry on bags so our escape was swift. Finding the shuttle bus to our car rental place, which was located a few miles from the airport, was another matter. The shuttle was even harder to get into than the first one but I'm sure I was great entertainment for the small audience watching. The 4-wheel drive Michal rented on-line turned out to be a 2-wheel drive, "...but for an extra $20 per day we can offer you this special deal on what you requested in the first place." Michal talked them down to $10/day more and we took it. The 4x shift never worked anyway, but it was the increased clearance from the road surface that we really wanted it for.
Our first destination was Temple Square at the heart of Salt Lake City, the Mormon heart of this Mormon State. The entire area seemed to be under construction. There was no place to park and the two shots we got of the famous Salt Lake Temple were marred by traffic lights and construction cranes. We took a short run up past the State Capitol Building to get a hazy view of the city from Ensign Vista Park. The snow-covered Wasatch Mountain Range to the east was the most impressive part of the view. SLC is low-rise with a small central core, with a very small city feel. At this point I realized that I had put a 32 mb memory card in my camera instead of the 2 gb one, and the memory card was already full less than an hour into the trip.
It was a grey, unsettled day that threatened to rain. It mirrored our rather over-tired mood. We stopped for an enchilada breakfast at a taco chain restaurant beside the freeway and then headed east on a side road into the American Fork Canyon in the Uinta National Forest. Traveling up the canyon the views from below were impressive, as were the views of the valley and Mt. Timpanogos from the top of the switchbacks at the end of the valley. The narrow road twisted like a pubic hair through an aspen and pine forest, the contrasted greens looking so beautiful together.
The road ended at a small highway that led SW to Provo, where we drove around Brigham Young University, the largest private college in the country. To attend it, one has to agree to do two years of assigned Mormon missionary work in some part of the world and swear off booze, cigarettes and coffee. We checked out the cute blond Mormon boys walking around in their starched white dress shirts and black ties, looking sweeter than French vanilla parfaits. Perhaps it's a good thing I am diabetic.
We headed SE through Spanish Fork and Price River Canyons and followed the east side of the Wasatch Mtns south to Capitol Reef National Park. It was late in the day when I steered Michal into a service road that climbed high onto a mesa before dropping 3000 ft into the Valley of the Cathedrals. The road was painfully rough and unmaintained. My elbows were bruised the next day. It took forever to reach the edge of the drop off where the road plummeted down in switch backs often too narrow for two cars to pass and without railings of course.
The valley was already cast in shadows by then as the day was winding down. The road below was in much better condition and after a couple dozen pictures of the fantastic landscapes Michal sped as fast as he could to get back to the highway we had left two hours before. It took another hour to get there and it was fully dark by then.
We continued into Torrey where our first night would be spent. Both Google maps and Michal's GPS had different and incorrect locations for the hotel and we ran around for the better half of an hour looking for it. It had already turned out its sign. I found the manager closing office for the day. Nothing was left open except a pizza place, not usually my idea of a meal just before bed, but it turned out to be the best and only evening dinner we shared during the trip. I was so tired by this time that I could scarcely walk or get up again after sitting down. Michal had to catch me at the point of falling at one instance. It was a miracle that I made it safely to bed that night.
PHOTO 1: old Mormon temple in Emery
PHOTO 2: Cathedral Valley from the top of the mesa
PHOTO 3: "The Wall" in Cathedral Valley
No comments:
Post a Comment