Roads with Henley: Day 9: CO >> UT

I took as many photos as I could before leaving Crested Butte, not wanting to ever forget its beauty. Being in the mountains, it was in the thirties as we slept and some clouds floated below the peaks. On our way out we stopped in the adorable downtown. There wasn’t one chain establishment, but the little downtown was filled with restaurants, shops, and everything else you could want. The tennis courts were filled on a weekday morning and I saw signs for upcoming festivals for music, film, and wildflowers. What at wonderful place to live. I got a coffee and breakfast sandwich from recommended Izzy’s: egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, and mustard on an everything bagel. One of the best breakfast sandwiches ever.

We headed to Zion National Park in southern Utah. The drive was insane. The red rock mountains with their flat tops stand tall and strong and stretch across the horizon on all sides of you. There was a consistent awe, but then many many times I would go around a bend and enter an even higher level of awe -- jaw dropping awe. A few times I put my hands up like What? Are you kidding? I had to pull over to change as I was as bundled as much as I could be and I watched the temperature climb to the nineties.

Being a national park, Zion does not allow pets besides in frontcountry campgrounds and main roads. Zion has one walking path Henley was allowed so we just had plans for doing that, as it was late in the day anyway. Luckily, it was later seeing as it was still about a hundred degrees. The trail went through one of the campgrounds and it looked fun. Everyone was on top of each other, it wasn’t like the camping we had just done, but each site had a picnic table and fire pit and they had the luxury of staying right in the park. I asked someone how you go about getting a site and they explained you have to get there early in the morning and just claim an empty one. I was about twelve hours late for that. I was disappointed and wished I had planned to splurge on the sixteen dollar fee. Finding a site the night before was a pain as this kind of camping isn’t advertised and showing you where to go. Again, I had no idea where to go near Zion except I knew the park was surrounded by BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, meaning public, meaning I could camp there. I found a map distinguishing national park land from BLM land and drove down a road. I actually found a few campers quickly and pulled into a large space off the road. I was immediately grateful that the campground was full and that I put in the time and effort again to camp this way.

I made dinner, watched shooting stars, and spent the rest of the night with Henley panting on me under the Milky Way.