Kanab and out of touch

Sitting in the deepening darkness at Crazy Horse RV Campark in Kanab, UT. Watched the golden sunset illuminate the clouds as the red cliffs glowed crimson. Near full moon shining brightly thru the trees. We have marked time by it's change from a sliver crescent. Every night the sky has been brilliant with stars. Altho we have been going to bed early I can certainly see why primitive people took such an interest in the night heavens and composed so many stories and fables in an attempt to explain what they saw. The Native Americans here have done the same with distant monuments of rock and geology as they incorporate these unusual landmarks into their own legends of genesis.

We may need to develop our own legends of the world around us as well. We have not seen a TV (other than thru windows of some large RVs), read a newspaper, or listened to a radio news program since we left Eugene. Today, at a visitor center I joked with the volunteer about this, asking if we still have a country out there. She grinned and replied, "Barely!" I told her she was scaring me. Looking briefly on-line it appears the world has not ended but if any of you want to email me with the highlights, (international, national, or local) I would appreciate it. When Sarah and I floated the Colorado River in 95 we discovered upon coming out of the canyon after 18 days that Super Man (Christopher Reeves) had broken his neck!

The Grand Canyon.......Sarah has seen it from the bottom up but not the top down. I was there 40 years ago. Altho the canyon has changed little, the visitor center and tourist circuit has changed a bunch. Paved and wheelchair acceptable, the South Rim area is busy with tourist. Absent of all the kids (they are back in school) the shuttle buses are standing room only with gray hairs (us?) and foreign visitors. But despite all the people, the scenery and the landscape is no less awesome or impressive. Photos will not do justice. Even in person it is difficult to comprehend the scale. When the first white explorers came to this region they were not impressed believing the river in the distant at the bottom of this canyon was on six feet wide! Today, before leaving Page, we drove 30 miles to Lee's Ferry. This was a nostalgic trip for me and Sarah as it is the put in for Colorado River floats. A commercial trip was rigging rafts to begin their 18 day 270 mile journey into the beginning of time. Mr Lee, after apparently being a participant in an earlier massacare, had established a small town there and ferried pioneers and Mormons who were on the Honeymoon Trail as they traveled to Salt Lake to have their recent marriages sanctified in the Temple. Building this community with the 17th of 19 wives he was eventually found and executed for his prior crime. Rock ruins of the post office and fort is all that remains today.

Taranturala at last campsite--Sarah not thrilled!

Condors in the Canyon

The Colorado River

Sunset across the parking lot

Tomorrow we plan to get up early and go to Zion. Hopefully we will find a comfortable camp and maybe hang out for a day or two. Would consider doing that here but there really isn't much in Knab but this camp site is pretty comfy. Not the usual busy over light RV park with rows of huge motorhomes and yappie little dogs. Folks here are sitting around campfires collectively battling mesquitoes and telling stories and, I suspect, lies. Laughter floats across the area like a soft wind as newly arrived bike travelers set up camp by head light chattering in a language I can't identify.