Well, it's no 40 days or nights - GAR Day #13

Magnet #96 - Zion National Park

...but today we were desert-bound - finishing up Zion, and then taking the scenic route to Arches.

And by scenic, I seriously was planning on us getting up superearly (like see the break of dawn over Monument Valley early), heading to Monument Valley, Four Corners, the Trail of the Ancients, Canyonlands, and finishing up with sunset at Arches National Park. Yes. All in one day. What?

And before you wonder whether or not we're big hikers, the answer is...two of us might be, and two of us could be. I'd like to think that we'd have been rambling all around these parks and trails. The reality is, I probably would have been sitting in the car, trying to convince the roadtrippers that we could just do the scenic drive...with strategic stops at the gift shops. (I mean, that's how we did Zion, last time around.)

Truth be told, I think this day was one of the ones I was a little wary of. It's the part where they caution you to carry one gallon of water per passenger, just in case your car breaks down. Holy moly! Really? And, like what if we'd gotten stranded out in the boondocks of nowhere, and had to walk somewhere, and tie our shirts around our heads and what if we got stuck out in the cold desert night and had to figure out how to make a fire! I mean, I know I learned a lot from watching TV, but honestly? Making a fire would be iffy for me. So yeah, I'm kinda happy I'm typing this post from my air conditioned desk.

I'm dedicating this particular blogpost to the fabulous NPS ranger at the Teddy Roosevelt Birthplace national park. The TR birthplace is right around the corner from work, and I wandered in to see if they had any NPS paraphernalia, and this guy took about half an hour to walk through my little GAR itinerary. He even tried to talk sense into me that this day wasn't going to work, and that we needed to split the day in two.

Three weeks later, my friends and I went to visit the birthplace, and he remembered me, and handed me a Canyonlands map. This ranger's probably one of the few reasons I regret not going...or, at least why I'm avoiding going to the birthplace again (so I don't have to tell the guy, who was very intrigued by this weird not-quite-cross-country trip, that we didn't actually go).

GAR Track of the Day: Desert Rose


eta:
I just wanted to add a bit of happy news on this momentous day. George Clooney and THATwoman Sarah Larson have broken up.

Good.