Here and Back Again

The mountains gave way to an endless scrub forest.  A flat plateau of green trees, rooted in the beige sand were sun bleached  A sign up ahead said “Natural Bridges National Monument.” We arrived at the Visitor and were greeted warmly by our fellow staff.  They showed us to our new home, a small comfortable ranch home.

The relief of arriving at Natural Bridges and finding our cute little ranch house in which we would dwell, was quickly set aside as we reaalized we needed food.  The nearest town was Blanding, one hour away.  Depiste having been in the car all day already, we jumped back in and set out on the twisted road to Blanding.   This road winds it way through the hills, the most striking area being Comb’s Wash, which features a narrow mountain pass thrrough red rock walls.  There is little to see besides hills, scrub trees and occasional deer and cattle.    

Blanding is small town of about 3,000 people. To be frank were expecting a much more depressing city and we were relieved to discover it has a small grocery store,  library, and a movie theater that shows one movie each Saturday night at 7pm for $5.  It also has a few odd little eateries, a dinosaur museum and a small trading post.  There is no cell reception in Blanding (The last non roaming signal I got was back in Bryce Canyon).

We loaded up the car with a week’s worth of food and drove an exhausting one hour back to our new home.  However, there were no traffic jams (except  a slight delay when a group of wild turkeys crossed the road), no homeless people begging for money at the stop signs, and in fact there are no stop signs. 

Excited by quality of our accommodations and the beautiful setting, we unpacked with much enthusiasm and stepped out into the cool evening air to witness a radiant sunset.

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