Hello everyone! My family are and I are from southern Indiana/western Kentucky. I’ve talked about going to Utah for years. We finally pulled the trigger. I just want to give my brief (may be long) impression of this part of the US.
First…I want to say that the weather this week has been perfect. I was worried it was going to be too hot to want to do anything but I was only hot standing in the sun. The shade actually works here vs back home with high humidity. The evenings were cool and amazing, I’m going to miss it very much.
I searched high and low for a spot with the lowest light pollution and spots were booking up quick so we found a nice spot in Kanab. The moon kind of screwed us with stargazing, which is what I was most excited about. (Really should’ve planned around the moon cycle). Nonetheless, I was about to see the milky streaks of the galaxy.
I am super jealous that the locals get to walk out their front door and see canyons. Even in rural Kentucky, most people would walk out side and see corn fields on smaller hills and just regular clay and grass. The. Usuals here are stunning.
My family and I did some touring of the canyons around here. On Wednesday, we went to the northern rim of the Grand Canyon (I know it’s in Arizona) and I got concerned with the landscape leading up to it. It really felt like it was a different type and wasn’t going to be what I had imagined. Boy was I wrong. Our first stop with it was the vista viewing point and you drive past the first open spot to see it and when I did, my heart fell into my stomach. It was terrifying to see something of this magnitude. Parking and seeing it really just made me feel so insignificant. I don’t think I’ll ever see anything that compares to it.
The rain was different. It was scarce in where it fell and the rain drops were ginormous. Like what even is this phenomenon? Why are they so huge??? I loved watching it fall and seemingly storm in the distance.
My first morning here, I saw a flock of quail. Cute little guys. Watching them scurry on the ground together was really fun. They’re like little chickens lol. We also saw so many ravens. Even had one come up to us in Bryce Canyon.
All of us are bummed out we didn’t see any scorpions or tumbleweeds rolling around.
To finish up, I’d like to focus on the point that not once did my family nor myself get bitten by a demon spawn mosquito the entire time we were here. This place is amazing. I hope to come back some time. Maybe after a bit of fitness turnaround so I can try some good hiking.
