A Trippy Trip

"'Cause baby, there ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river..."

"Uh oh. It looks like there might be an accident up ahead. Do you see the police lights? I bet someone hit a deer. Wait a minute, is that policeman signaling for me to pull over? I wonder what's wrong?"

So ended our crooning with the Temptations and began our trip to scenic southcentral Utah.

As it turns out, the police officer (who was very, very nice by the way) said I had not dimmed my high beams early enough and that he would let me go with a warning this time, but in the future I should be careful about my using my bright lights because "there are many old people that drive these roads and the bright lights bother them." I was relieved, to say the least, and very cautious (a.k.a. "paranoid") about my headlight usage from that point on.

Sadly, that was not my only brush with the long arm of the Utah law on this trip. On Sunday, as TC and I were traveling along lovely Highway 12 engrossed in a deep conversation about freedom and living outside of "the matrix" (oh, I was on a roll, indeed!), I failed to notice the speed limit change (a.k.a "tourist speed trap") through the "town" of Escalante. (Actually, we both failed to notice the entire "town"). It wasn't long before I saw the all-too-familiar police lights in my rearview mirror. $107 later, we were again on our way to the wilds of Bryce Canyon as I unsuccessfully tried to exorcise the voice within me that said "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"Ironic, isn't it?" TC posed. "There we were talking about how free it must have felt to have lived in a time when only nature (rather than human-imposed codes, laws, and schedules) dictated most of your life and "the man" stops us and tickets us for speeding."

Yep, it was ironic. It was also stupid, stupid, stupid!

Bryce Canyon was kind of a last minute decision and a change in plans. My original plans had us visiting Capital Reef NP instead. Several recent recommendations as well as time, convenience and a desire to go horseback riding caused us to alter my plans and go to Bryce instead. We still visited Calf Creek Falls (which was gorgeous, by the way - I highly recommend it!), camped at the campgrounds there (in overflow camping because it was so crowded) and saw spectacular views from Boulder Mountain and Hogsback Ridge, but we decided against the 3-4 hour (possibly??) drive along Burr Trail and Notom-Bullfrog Road.

Having grown up with horses, it's always been a bit difficult for me to justify paying money (and lots of it) to go on a slow, often boring, hour-long horse ride. However, I've been itching to go riding the whole time I've been here and riding horses into the canyon seemed like a good way to see the park and something that could be fun, too. So we did it. We rented horses for a two-hour ride into (and back out of) the canyon. Our guide, a very chatty cowboy from Texas, was quite the character and I, being right behind him in line, got entertained the whole way. He was on a mule that spent most of her life pulling a cart. I think he said the mule had only had someone on her back about 14 times before our ride. He also mentioned to me that she was a little skittish, so until they broke her of that, they didn't want to let anyone but the guide ride her. On the way out of the canyon, we got a good taste of just how skittish she could be.

Always on the lookout for wildlife (I had already racked up one snake, a raven, a hawk - being chased by another raven - a chipmunk, a butterfly, several jackrabbits, and a small flock of wild turkey to TC's one bee and one fish - not that it was a competition or anything), I noticed a small herd of mule deer off to the right of the (narrow, winding) path up ahead of us. I told the guide about them (thinking that he might want to stop so people could look and/or take pictures). He did stop and we all lined up and watched the deer, oohing and ahhing appropriately as we did. It wasn't long before the deer saw us too. As soon as they started to run away, ol' Peaches (the guide's mule) finally noticed them and freaked out. One second I was casually aiming my camera at the deer closest to us and the next second I was being crushed (ok, not really crushed, but close) by a 1300 pound mule. Having been on and/or near Angel (the devil horse we had on our farm) many times when she spooked at something, Peaches' behavior did not immediately panic me. My only thought was that I better get my camera back in its case before I dropped it. However, as Peaches pushed by me, flailing and kicking, I became aware enough to start worrying about everyone else down the line (as I mentioned earlier, we were on a narrow, winding path). "Hold on!" I yelled to TC (as if he wouldn't think to do that on his own) and tried to get my own horse out of the way and under control. Peaches finally calmed down. We all took a little breather (including the guide who was visibly shaken) and then attempted to go forward again. The deer were gone, but just like Angel used to do, Peaches refused to go past the spot where they had been. Again, she flailed backwards at us. Again, we tried desperately to move out of her way. Finally, our guide got off of her and walked her past the spot where the deer had been while we waited a good distance behind. When it appeared that Peaches was over her little anxiety attack, I led the rest of the line up the hill. We met our guide (who apologized profusely and kept asking me how my leg was - I guess it must have gotten smashed between the two horses, but I didn't remember that) and continued on our way. I have to say, that made the trip for me! It was a beautiful ride and I would have enjoyed it anyway, but that bit of excitement made it all the more enjoyable and worth the money.

It was already almost 5:00pm when we left Bryce, but we were tired, a bit sore, and just wanted to cap off our adventures with a bit of relaxation, so we stopped at Mystic Hot Springs on the way home. Mystic Hot Springs is a commercial, hippie-run hot springs spa in the little town of Monroe, Utah. It was a blast! We soaked in a communal pool with another family for awhile then moved to individual tubs up on the hill. From there, we watched the sun set, the steam rise, and the clouds of oncoming rain move in. It was great. When we finished soaking, we listened to a small band from San Francisco warming up inside while we drank a smoothie, then headed on down the road to home.

What a trip! A trippy trip! But I've come to expect nothing less from our little excursions together.