Canyonlands

I left for Montana the day after my twentyfirst birthday. It was drunken-floor-tastic. I managed to get home that night, and then even to wake up at 7 am to say goodbye to my brothers. Then went right back to sleep till noon before getting on the road.

Road tripping is awesome. I wish I had someone else to share the driving, but I still really like seeing so much of the country. And cruise control is my friend. I got myself all the way to Utah and then up a hill just outside of Zion by sunset that day. I was going to go camp in the park, but I figured, why pay? so I threw down a sleeping bag on a flat spot on top of the hill and slept out. It makes me so happy to be out in high country again. I was starting to get antsy out in the city.. and I didn't really get to much time in the mountains last summer. It's been so long since I just laid myself down on the ground like that. It's delicious.

Mmm.. so next morning I went to Zion. The park is amazing. It really looks like all the pictures... just thousands of feet of vertical sandstone, with twisted pines growing in all the cracks and a turquoise river at the bottom of the canyon. They've banned cars, so even though there were lots of people it didn't feel crowded. I didn't get to stay long, but I did a hike that morning up angel's landing. You climb about a thousand feet up a slot canyon, then it opens out onto a 20-some foot wide
ridge with thousand foot drops on either side. Follow the ridge out towards the middle of the valley and there is a little peak with views for miles. God damn. I didn't want to leave.

The scenic route out of there is very pretty, but it took four hours where my map said one. The rest of Utah went by in gorgeous sweeping deserty blurs as I did 80 down the interstate. Who know it was so damn big. Past dark and ten hours into a supposedly 8 hour drive I gave up on making it to Steamboat and found a dirt road to park and sleep for the night. Just got to Steamboat this morning. I got about half an hour of Casey during his lunch break, so now it's just bumming around town for me. It's gone even more upscale in the last two years. But there are good memories here. And cool people. I'm glad I came to visit.

Oh.. I have an address.
Write me letters! Send Me Cookies! YUM.
Jessica Thompson
300 Bio Station Lane
Polson MT 59860-9659