Let’s Git It!

It’s been several days since we drove into a bright and sunny Albuquerque. The mountains there, appearing so enormous in the New Mexican desert, now seem more like mere turds of the of the Rocky Mountains, squeezed out near the end of the range. But let’s back up just a second.

Finding a parking deck tall enough to clear the Escape + giant bubble produced plenty of laughs as we pulled into the Albuquerque International Airport parking lot. We now know the Escape/bubble combo can clear 8’6”. But finally we parked, and waited until a purple Southwest jet from Kansas City brought our father into the desert. Ah, back to the world of hotels and their comfy beds and warm showers.

We departed from Albu on the first morning of his week-long tour with us and headed due north for the Colorado border. Our route was US-550 North, which would later morph into the

Million Dollar Highway

. (Conspiracy theorists give us a few options for this moniker: the scenic view, the fact it was the first highway built in the US costing over a million bucks, or maybe that it was paved with dirt used from the surrounding mines and therefore possibly contained copper, gold, diamonds, and other various precious things).

Here’s where the Rockies come back into it. As we neared the Colorado border, it was as if suddenly (seriously) the clouds parted, or maybe dissipated, and the snowy peaks beamed before us like a Heavenly vision in the elevated sunlight.

Oh man, oh man. Oh man! was all I could say. Or as Steve Snyder said, when he first saw them, Seriously?? Are you serious??

Beyond that, I was speechless. Having grown up in the Midwest, and never traveling west of Lawrence, KS, the mountains were simply astonishing in the way they jutted out of the earth, still covered in white, and glowing in the sun. They were behemoth and majestic and dramatic in the way they were tectonically smashed together a million years ago. The route we were on took us straight into their grandeur. Our road wound around and up and around and up. Our brown New Mexican mountains had become covered in aspens, firs, spruces, and snow. The Escape weaved up and up, around bends and hairpin turns where the mountainside simply dropped away and vanished. Just the geography was stunning, the rockslides, the temperate forest, the snow mounds, the mining towns, it was picturesque. We reached an elevation of about 11,000 feet before descending on the other side, ears popping and brakes burning the whole winding way down.

The night was spent in Grand Junction, CO before journeying into Utah where we were met by another jaw-dropping natural wonder: Arches National Park. A planning miscalculation forced us to hurry a bit in the park. We were unable to hike the three miles to widely-recognized Delicate Arch, but we did hike the half mile up to the best view point of it. We saw sandstone sculptures of the Three Gossips, the Garden of Eden, the Double Arch, and the North and South Windows. We were all in silent awe of God’s work. That or mumbling, “This is incredible… Oh man, oh man… look at it… where do you stop looking…” We took it in as long as we could, then we sped out of the park to make our 10:30am appointment for rafting.

We arrived at the Moab Adventures homebase in just enough time. We put on our water-wear clothing. We rubbed in the sunblock. We grabbed our Wal-Mart brand pool shoes. We then boarded a bus and rode forty-five minutes up the side of the Colorado River where we then boarded a raft with seven other gentle souls and embarked on our three hour rafting trip down the river. Now, I don’t know much about rafting, in fact this was our first time riding, collectively, but the guide said the rapids we encountered were Class One, out of Class Five. That’s kinda like a few strong breezes compared to an F5 tornado. So don’t think we were out there manhandling these waves left and right. There were a few sizeable ones though, and when we attacked them with our small raft the guy from Georgia behind me kept yelling, “Let’s git it!!” I had offered myself up as one of the front-sitters, in a way to protect the others from being splashed with the freezing cold Colorado River water. It wasn’t really the water temperature that was so bothersome, it was the raging Colorado River wind tunnel that added an extra chill to your bones. Me and Mark (a different dad on the raft) selflessly chattered and shivered our way down the river so that everyone else could enjoy the views of sandstone canyon walls, and the beautiful sunshine, and the sound of the water below.

Today was a busy day. It was New State Day! as we crossed into the big Utah. We saw amazing, I mean freaking a-mazing, rock formations in the park. We (kinda, but not really) extreme-rafted down the Colorado River. We checked out a small section of Moab, UT. And now we’re ready for bed, so we can have another day of New State Day!, in fact, tomorrow we see four states at once.

Three Gosips

Balanced Rock

Double Arches

Delicate Arch

Windows

Action Shot on the Rafting Trip

After the Trip - Andy's Soaked!