I have found my new favorite place in Utah. Zions aside, the vistas of the small piece of the Grand Starcase of Escalante that I saw more than reminded me of why Utah will always be home. I loved the duluges, rich earth, and acacia of the rift valley in Ethiopia. Between Seoul and DC I learned to appreciate the city scape. And the high rugged mountains of the Uintah's and the Wind River range are grand beyond measure. But I've never seen a landscape that seemed so teeming with life as I saw in Escalante.
It had its share of annoyances. Nat bites heal slower than meskitoes and the nats were everywhere. I also had a few scary encounters with rattlesnakes and changed my mind about sleeping out under that stars. But even the annoyances were part of what made the land so entriguing. During the three mile hike towards Neon, every step off the trail was like a miniture pit-fall that reveled a network of burrows where the desert wild-life found refuge from the sun. In the canyons we encountered frogs and crows, catterpillers and stinkbugs, and dancing daddy-long-leg spiders without number. There in the damp cool shadows the spiders gather by the hundreds and bounce on the rock rythmically, as though they are gathering life force from the rock.
The green moss the hugs the canyon walls in selective places is apparently where the canyon 'Neon' gets its name. The colors are electric like the spiders. It's as though they are plugged in to something. The pictures won't show as much as the living landscape but I've posted a few anyway.
It was a first rate trip. Hope to return again soon.
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