September 15, 2005
I woke to the first hints of dawn. I was still the only human in sight, so I walked outside and breathed it all in. Finally, I left the parking lot to go take some pictures as the sun came up.
I parked myself at a cool-looking arch, and was about to take some pictures when this other photographer set up shop right in front of me. He was the first person I'd seen in 12 hours, and he was loud and obnoxious, "teaching" two others how to avoid being in other people's photos (no kidding). He's lucky I was in a good mood, or otherwise I would have called him right out. Instead, I just moved over politely and glared really hard at him.
I took a whole bunch of shots here, and started walking around.
I found some cool paths, and hiked around away from the road. There were quite a few people on the main side of the arches,
but it was totally silent and empty on the other side. I got some good solitude time to just look around, and I decided that if the Badlands were the moon, this is most certainly Mars.
Except that Mars doesn't have any wildlife, whereas Arches National Park had one rabbit. Seriously - it's the only animal I saw the whole time.
After Arches, my next stop was Mesa Verde National Park. For that, I had to drive back into Colorado (it wasn't as out-of-the-way as it sounds, really) and into the mountains. I wasn't all that excited about this park, but it was a beautiful drive down into canyon country, so I didn't really mind.
The park itself was fairly impressive, and I'm sure it would have been awesome to the anthropologists around 
the world, but it didn't really capture my interest. The villages themselves, all carved into the rock, were incredible, but I guess I'm not as into ancient civilizations as I thought I was.
I made short work of the park, really stopping only at the most picturesque sites, and then hightailed it out of there. I had to make it to the Grand Canyon by sunset, after all.
I drove through the Navajo Nation on my way to the Grand Canyon - it was incredibly desolate and made me feel even more sorry for the people 
whose only reserved land exists in the desert there. They had, apparently recently, gotten control of the Four Corners National Monument, but there was nothing around it and no good ways of making money.
I was, therefore, a bit depressed heading into the Grand Canyon National Park, but my sadness went away as soon as I laid eyes on the canyon itself - it was my first time seeing it, and I had never seen anything so majestic in my life.
It reminded me of the first time I saw the Rockies, only someone had taken the mountains now and sunk them into the ground. It felt like I was on the top of a mountain even though I was still just at sea level.
I did (obviously) make it to the park before sunset, so I drove along the length of the canyon, stopping a few times along the way, in an effort to make it to the Grand Canyon Village area before sundown. (This village was interesting, btw - it had all the feel of a ski village but with nothing to do but sit and stare. I don't know what people planned to do when they bought houses there, but they ended up doing a lot of sitting and staring.)
I pulled into a campsite parking lot for the night, but there was a loud bus incessantly making its rounds every two minutes or so. There was no way I could sleep there, so I found another spot to sleep. I slept like a baby in my car along the side of the road.
¶ 12:00 AM 
I woke to the first hints of dawn. I was still the only human in sight, so I walked outside and breathed it all in. Finally, I left the parking lot to go take some pictures as the sun came up.
I parked myself at a cool-looking arch, and was about to take some pictures when this other photographer set up shop right in front of me. He was the first person I'd seen in 12 hours, and he was loud and obnoxious, "teaching" two others how to avoid being in other people's photos (no kidding). He's lucky I was in a good mood, or otherwise I would have called him right out. Instead, I just moved over politely and glared really hard at him.I took a whole bunch of shots here, and started walking around.
I found some cool paths, and hiked around away from the road. There were quite a few people on the main side of the arches,
but it was totally silent and empty on the other side. I got some good solitude time to just look around, and I decided that if the Badlands were the moon, this is most certainly Mars.Except that Mars doesn't have any wildlife, whereas Arches National Park had one rabbit. Seriously - it's the only animal I saw the whole time.
After Arches, my next stop was Mesa Verde National Park. For that, I had to drive back into Colorado (it wasn't as out-of-the-way as it sounds, really) and into the mountains. I wasn't all that excited about this park, but it was a beautiful drive down into canyon country, so I didn't really mind.
The park itself was fairly impressive, and I'm sure it would have been awesome to the anthropologists around 
the world, but it didn't really capture my interest. The villages themselves, all carved into the rock, were incredible, but I guess I'm not as into ancient civilizations as I thought I was.I made short work of the park, really stopping only at the most picturesque sites, and then hightailed it out of there. I had to make it to the Grand Canyon by sunset, after all.
I drove through the Navajo Nation on my way to the Grand Canyon - it was incredibly desolate and made me feel even more sorry for the people 
whose only reserved land exists in the desert there. They had, apparently recently, gotten control of the Four Corners National Monument, but there was nothing around it and no good ways of making money.I was, therefore, a bit depressed heading into the Grand Canyon National Park, but my sadness went away as soon as I laid eyes on the canyon itself - it was my first time seeing it, and I had never seen anything so majestic in my life.
It reminded me of the first time I saw the Rockies, only someone had taken the mountains now and sunk them into the ground. It felt like I was on the top of a mountain even though I was still just at sea level.
I did (obviously) make it to the park before sunset, so I drove along the length of the canyon, stopping a few times along the way, in an effort to make it to the Grand Canyon Village area before sundown. (This village was interesting, btw - it had all the feel of a ski village but with nothing to do but sit and stare. I don't know what people planned to do when they bought houses there, but they ended up doing a lot of sitting and staring.)
I pulled into a campsite parking lot for the night, but there was a loud bus incessantly making its rounds every two minutes or so. There was no way I could sleep there, so I found another spot to sleep. I slept like a baby in my car along the side of the road.
