If wanting to do stuff on your own is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

[stoney321]

I might need to make arrangements with the Mr. to head out of town on my own and hit the desert in a few weeks. Oh my god, I had an old ache for Southern Utah (the land, nothing else, hahaha) hit me like a ton of bricks. Some quiet personal reflection is good for the soul, right?

This. I used to climb this peak every single Saturday. No, EVERY single Saturday. (Check the eHike - it's awesome.) you come down tired and hot (it's 7 miles of one of the most grueling hikes there is - check out pic. 10 for Walter's Wiggles. That's only 1/3 of the way up - 66% incline, oy) and hit the Bit and Spur for a margarita and black bean burrito.... WANT. I want to walk through the Narrows again, camp out overnight on the bank, then finish up the last four miles floating down stream the Virgin river. (It's named that because it's so muddy, no one has ever seen the bottom, har de har har. No, really.)

Good lord, am I having a mid life crisis? Probably.

I just miss being alone in nature, tired from a long slog, a camp fire getting going, and a sky full of stars. And QUIET. I miss that most of all.

[ETA] Here's an AMAZING shot of Walter's Wiggles. And you've only gone halfway on the whole hike. <3 <3 <3 It's an absolute butt kicker.

[ETA 2] Willis Creek, slot canyon in the Grand Staircase. I mean, are you kidding me, Mother Nature? ILU.

Comments

[minstrel666.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel - been aching to visit the forest for some time now, but between my job, my thesis and avoiding both of those (I have a terrible procrastination problem), I don't think I could finf time.

[turnonmyheels.livejournal.com]

gorgeous.

[marenfic.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a fantastic idea. Except for the hiking and the being tired and hot ;) But you like that masochistic stuff, so go for it bebe.

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

Angel's Landing looks terrifying. When the ex and I were there, he explained in a sort of shell-shocked voice that a couple of our friends had made him hike it, despite his terror of heights. That seemed sort of mean... On the other hand, I wish I'd gotten to walk more of the park. We only went from the last bus stop up the river to... er. There's a place where there's a big bend to the left, and it's a bit wider than it's been up till there, and there's some land with trees above the water line? And then it curves sharply back to the right? I'm not sure if that's clear, but we only went to the first part of that bend and then turned back. I want to go further into the Narrows than that!

You should definitely take some "me" time out there, though - it's gorgeous, and it's so obvious from how you talk about it that you love it and miss it horribly. It'll be good for you.

I don't think wanting a vacation to a place you love actually constitutes a midlife crisis, for the record. ;)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I'm going to make time, dammit. I need to escape for a bit. SIGH.

back to doing childrens laundry...

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

After spending the last three "vacations" with family, I'm right there with you on needing a trip back to nature. We're thinking Big Bend, but I've never been to Zion or Bryce Canyon. It looks spectacular.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? Man, it's my absolute, hands down, most favorite place on earth. (And talk about a work out...)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. You can hang out in the cabin with all the little bunnies and BBQ. Someone needs to check the drinks to make sure they're up to snuff, right?

tonight's the Big Talk.O_O

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

It's pretty treacherous in places where you have to grab a chain to get up there. I've got some great photos from my college days of me and my dudes up there. That's the Refrigerator that you're talking about. It gets really cool and there are hanging gardens and so forth?

The Narrows aren't the same as Angel's landing, however. They are two separate hikes/geologic features. Both stunning. <3 <3 <3

Well, that's one vote in the DO IT column! Keep in mind I'm a mom, and I want to go ALONE. That makes me feel bad. :( (But it doesn't make me not want to go, though, hahaha.)

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

What a lovely lovely link! You are just full of the lovely aren't you?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

If you like Big Bend, you'd go bananas for Zion and Bryce. The COLOR. There's nothing like it anywhere, with the exception of Western Australia. Driving out of the panhandle, across Tucumcari and ALbequerque, then up to Gallup and Tuba City... The color change is almost like a child's drawing, it's so intense.

...can you tell I miss it out there?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Except when I'm full of fiber! ;)

Oh, that place is so beautiful. You're close to some pretty spectacular landscape - I miss the Four Corners region a lot. Oooh, and Ester's Park (aka THE OVERLOOK FROM THE SHINING, EEEK.)

nature = my one true love.

[roonilwazlib6.livejournal.com]

That sounds so nice and beautiful. I'm a nature girl myself, so I definitely get where you're coming from. Nothing like sitting around a camp fire with good company, then snuggling into a warm sleeping bag with the night sounds lulling you to sleep.

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

We are getting the nature RIGHT NOW! There is a blizzard outside and because I now work for a public university we aren't closing for another 1 ande half hours! THat is DIRTY!BAD!WRONG!!!!
I am going to try to ski over to the park near my house tomorrow! woot for the snow but boo for having to wait to go home. Stupid government job!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Here's a picture of the home stretch to the very tip of Angel's Landing.

Yeah - if you have a fear of heights, this isn't the climb for you.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oy, snow? I loved living in the desert: access to snow and mountains, but I didn't have to live in the actual snow. :D

It's a good thing you like it, lol.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

You have just described the best sleep of your life. Mmmmm, WANT!!

[dancetomato.livejournal.com]

This post officially made me tired.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha. You need a massage to recover!

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

God that sounds intense. I have no idea if I'd love it or be TERRIFIED - I used to so love heights but I've found I'm less good with them as I get older. Weird.

Um, possibly? I'm not sure I remember the hanging gardens, but that was where we turned back so I didn't get a great look at it. It's a little past a place where the walls do tighten in and you're suddenly in water over your waist for the first time?

Hee, yeah, sorry. I understand they were different! I meant that the only part of Zions we walked around in was the Narrows and the walk up to them, and in some ways that was a bummer!

Well, sure, but being a mom is a full-time job. Taking a it of 'me' time to go spend time off unwinding is totally allowed - if you send the kids to a grandparent's or friends' or something for a few days it'll even be a treat for them, too.

I don't have kids, but I remember BEING one (and I do have a few in my life), and I think having Mom go unwind for a bit and come back hopefully less stressed can only be a good thing. Your happy will rub off.

Or that's the idea, anyway.

I definitely think you should go.

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

Ok, that looks RAD. I can't decide if I'd love it or if it would be one of those things where I made it up but then I was stuckstuckstuck. I go back and forth.

The ex, however... I'm sort of surprised he survived that. He got really nervy at things like me climbing fences along the pacific and trees at Bryce (http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v193/246/62/787113929/n787113929_420896_8145.jpg) (that was across the path from this (http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v193/246/62/787113929/n787113929_420917_6542.jpg), so not TOO close!)

[marenfic.livejournal.com]

I would have the water so cold for you it's not even funny.

Call me if you need me.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm. Icy cold water after being hot and tired. I'll need you to rub out the kinks in my butt muscles, too, you game?

<3 you. And same to you, missy.

[marenfic.livejournal.com]

Butt muscle rubbing is a specialty of mine. Maddy loves it, anyway :)

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

It took me a minute to remember why those pictures were so familiar to me. The year I was a senior at Evergreen, a bunch of my friends did a two-week Outward Bound style retreat to the Grand Staircase area with Willi Unsoeld; they carried very little food and a whole lot of film. One of them did a 24 hour photoseries of Willis Creek on the night of the full moon.

Amazing place, although very much out of my zone.

Julia, deserts do bad things to me, being a cool maritime native species.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I never thought I'd love the desert, myself. I haaaated it the first year I was there, then it all clicked and it makes me so happy. I don't know that I want to live there again, but visiting is perfect for me.

[poshcat.livejournal.com]

I know you weren't talking to me, but good luck tonight. I'll be thinking of you. xoxoxo

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I love you, babe. There will be a post, because I don't want to have anyone worry, one and two, I'm sure you wanna know what happens. :)

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Okay, that Walter's Wiggles is...wiggy. My phobia of heights kicked in just looking at it.

Actually, not to go all Kayaking Evangelist on you, but seriously...kayaking is a fantastic way to get a few hours of nature and quiet is you're looking for something alone-ish and not pocketbook-breaking. And...wow! Texas has a ton of kayaking trails (http://www.texasoutside.com/kayaking/index.html), which surprises me. I don't know why it surprises me, but it does. Maybe because I don't think of non-coastal Texas as, well, wet. :-)

Plus, those kayaks get you mighty close to wildlife, mostly because the local wildlife thinks you're a big ol', weird-looking waterfowl. (It's the best part!)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I used to teach kayaking! I love it - one of my favorite rivers is the Snake, leading down to the Green River and ending up in Moab. <3 As for Texas, yeah, people don't realize that it's only flat and dusty waaaaaaaay out west. The city of Dallas has white rapids on the Trinity!

I miss having my own kayak - my neighborhood has a series of lakes connected so you can take one all through the development. SIGH.

[caoil.livejournal.com]

*points to this*

Yup, you're a mom, but you're also a person outside of that. You have needs too, and one of those is time away to regenerate. You have a right to time where you look after only yourself, not everyone else.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

<3

Thanks.

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

Talk about a blast from the past! I know Walter's Wiggles! But I haven't even thought about it for probably (eek, I'm old), let's say, several decades. It was on a family vacation, we did Zion, Canyonlands and Arches. All of which was mind-blowing to a kid from New Jersey. I've always wanted to go back!

Do people make that hike by mule? Because I know I never hiked it, yet the picture is clear in my mind. And we did something by mule, but I don't know if that was it

I ramble, forgive me, but this is such a pleasant memory I just want to wallow in it. THANK YOU!!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

you should go back! it's stunning, year round.

Ahahahaha, oh, bless. No mules, you walk that puppy. It's paved in that part for people who want to see how high they get on an actual path before it turns into the Navajo sandstone escarpments.

The only hikes I know of in the area with mules would be at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or perhaps some serious backpacking in Bryce Canyon?

Ramble away, I'm feeling nostalgic, too! I miss that place like crazy.

[roonilwazlib6.livejournal.com]

We go camping every year at Saranac Lake in upstate New York. You have to take a boat to get to your campsite and you can't see or hear any other campers because the sites are so far apart. I'm itching to go back. Even the whiff of smoke from a garbage fire is filling me with longing, ha!

[essene.livejournal.com]

STOP. JUST STOP. *refuses to be homesick for St.G*

Aw, who am I kidding? It's some of the most beautiful landscape EVER (at least when you're not living in it everyday and can appreciate it).

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!! The people are KUH-WAY-ZEE but the landscape?! *sniff* Oh, I can never get that red sand out of my shoes, you know?

[mumsisdaughter]

And you managed that with incomplete sinuses? You must have the lungs of an elephant! Not the legs, of course: those must be of a gazelle. And the balance of a goat. And the stamina of a reindeer...you get the drift. I have the lungs of a gnat (if they have lungs)! Even in my lightweight youth, I couldn't have managed that incline.

I totally agree on the Quality Time Alone thing. My place of choice is a windswept beach about six miles from here. Hubby can't see the attraction of walking the tideline, beachcombing. Thank goodness we're not all the same.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

My lungs are strong like bull! *beats chest*

Oooh, that beach sounds wonderful. I wish I was closer to the beach myself. Or a mountainous cliff with a beach close by. Best of both worlds!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Mother nature is, indeed, quite awesome.

[dovil.livejournal.com]

God that sounds wonderful!

I just miss being alone in nature, tired from a long slog, a camp fire getting going, and a sky full of stars. And QUIET. I miss that most of all.

\o/ I used to live in the ranges, and some afternoons when coming home from work and seeing them off in the distance it's like a physical ache. Sometimes it's just good to get lost and wander about in nature and be killed by hillbillies, you know?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

if Wolf Creek taught me anything, it's that Western Australia is filled with psychotic rednecks that want to wear my skin.

I'm right there with you on that ache - when you love being outside, being trapped in the city with no access to trees and hills etc. just sucks. It's pretty where I am, but it's no Rocky Mountain range, that's for sure.

[violethamster.livejournal.com]

I can just imagine you out there, shaking a gourd and doing the hokey pokey. Those pictures look awe-inspiring. Also terrifying in the way things that are way too far up often are.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. HEY BB! Long time no see, cookie pants! <3

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Go for it! Take that time off and enjoy yourself! It's not a midlife crisis, it's just a natural desire to get some time off from being a mom/wife/everything-to-everybody. And you want to see some beloved places and do some fun things. Who wouldn't like to do that??? DO IT.

(Better you than me, I'm a total weenie and scared of heights besides. But I love the pictures! Take some more and bring back excellent stories for us armchair travellers.)