After rewarding ourselves with plates of salad and pork ribs at the local diner, we spent the night at Bashful Bob's Motel in Page, AZ - the only night on the whole trip that wasn't spent in tents. Oddly enough, Matt and Jenya had this exact same room last time they stayed overnight in Page.

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A long, happy day was spent driving up Cottonwood Canyon Road, a very scenic dirt road that cuts up across the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument from Hwy 89 to Hwy 12. Despite a storm in the distance, we kept going hoping the road never got too muddy to traverse even in 4-wheel drive. As thunder rumbled in the distance and rains picked up we scrambled a few hundred feet up to the top of Grosvenor Arch. This defied good sense, as we were basically begging to be struck by lightning, but it never happened, and we were treated to gorgeously dramatic skies.

Wildflowers along Cottonwood Canyon Road.

Looking up into Grosvenor Arch.

Up above the arch.

Squeezing through the narrows...

The little storm passed and we continued into Kodachrome Basin state park. After another scenic loop hike we went in search of a campsite nearby but were faced with the horrific realization that it was now Memorial Day weekend and there were actual people clogging all the facilities. We headed down a 4WD road to seek out BLM land for camping, but even there we found it impossible to locate any useful, unoccupied space. Finally, as the sun set, we found a semi-flat space and began pitching tents. Our brief sense of relief ended when a half dozen cows appeared and trampled right past us. They were eventually replaced with an equal number of giant black spiders. After Jenya recovered from the trauma of spilling a lavishly prepared pot of pasta on the ground, we cut our losses and moved further down a side road to a better site. The site was hereafter christened "Pasta Falls."

The next morning we woke, made pancakes and decided that we should head for higher ground to get away from the crowds. So we went a few miles north to Boulder Mountain (11,000 ft) in the Dixie National Forest. The retired couple at the ranger station were incredibly friendly but couldn't give us any information about trail conditions, as it was their first day there. So we claimed a public campsite nearby. Some brief exploration revealed that most of the trails on the south side of the mountain had too much snow to hike very far. Back at camp we made dinner and since it was getting down to about 40 degrees we made a fire for warmth and the roasting of marshmallows.

At the Oak Creek campground.

The Aspens were just starting to bud.

The next day we did a beautiful and strenuous dayhike up the Meeks Lake trail. We started around 9,000 ft and climbed to 10,800 ft, to a ridge with a stunning 360º view overlooking a large portion of the hot, dry canyonlands to the east. We had hoped to continue to the lake but the snow was getting too deep so we turned back. Weary of dinners that had to be rehydrated, we stopped in the town of Torrey to buy Bratwurst and buns and had a real camp barbeque before another chilly night descended upon us. Good thing we brought the down sleeping bags!

The view from Boulder Mountain in the Dixie National Forest, looking down on Capitol Reef and the Waterpocket Fold.

Viewpoint on the Meeks Lake trail.

Sloppily-assembled panorama from the viewpoint.

The Memorial day travellers were heading home at this point, so we packed up and headed back to the warm desert of Capital Reef national park.We did one short 4 mile hike in/out of Surprise Canyon, which was described as a "slot canyon," but wasn't (surprise!). Along the way encountered a rattlesnake but we left each other alone. At the end of the canyon we scrambled a few hundred feet up a steep pile of giant rocks in hopes we could climb out and down into another canyon, but the path was never revealed to us. Afterward, we poked around the rest of the park taking short hikes at various other scenic points. We found a campsite that night on the outskirts of Torrey.

Capitol Reef.

The following day we got up early so we could make it to Great Basin national park before noon. This would be the only national park in Nevada, except for the fact that part of Death Valley juts slightly over the border. The plan was to hike out to the 4,000 year old bristlecone pines and maybe climb Wheeler Peak (13,000 high), but (surprise!) everything above 10,000 feet was still under many feet of snow.

Snow-covered peak of Mt. Wheeler in Great Basin, NV.

Drove most of highway 50 across Nevada which was a feast of amazing cloud formations over countless summits and valleys. Stopped in Carson City for some Mexican food. Anthony used to live around these parts, so he led us to a campground where he spent a few weeks many years ago. This is where we set up for the night - our final night erecting the tent, blowing up the thermarests, etc.

Got up Wednesday and desided to come home by way of Lake Tahoe, since none of us were in a hurry to re-enter urban society. It was a lovely day, and we took a stroll down to the water and basked in the sun for a while before driving all the way around the lake to find a trail into the nearby Desolation Wilderness. A short hike up to the nearest lake ended up being quite a little workout - it was at least a 1,000 ft. climb in two miles - but we enjoyed sitting by this snowy alpine lake eating our last scraps of jerky, dried fruit, and gorp, before our return to the concrete jungle.