October 2022

Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument was the focus of some recent controversy. Trump and his spineless appointees reduced the size of the monument in order to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Fortunately adult, not to say sane, control has returned to the White House and the acerage has been restored.

There was a gym downstairs from a small company where I used to work. I would use their locker room to change before lunchtime runs. A very fit older fellow handed out towels and locker keys. Nice guy. He would sometimes wear a t-shirt that said: The older I get,

From Moab, Utah where we stayed while visiting Arches, we drove back north to Green River, then southwest to Torrey. We stayed here for a couple of nights while visiting Capitol Reef National Park.

I like this relatively small, relatively unvisited park. There are fewer hikes and nothing so magnificent

In the end, we drove about 2000 miles between Seattle and Scottsdale. By US standards that’s not much, but to Europeans a 3200 km trip may seem significant.

We heard that the parking lots and trails at Arches were overflowing and that the park rangers were closing the gate