The afternoon of our second day in Southern Utah was spent, again, in Arizona, hiding out from a driving rain and windstorm in Page, after stopping off at Glen Canyon Dam. Before the winds blew us back across the border, and before we’d fight our way westward again while doing our best to avoid being run off the road by a car sporting Florida plates and a driver determined to run off just about everybody he passed, we spent the morning off Highway 89 just past the Pariah Ranger Station hiking into The Toadstools. It’s a relatively easy hike back into a small valley of surreal hoodoos and balancing rocks, and it was a bit crazy to think it was such a short distance off the highway yet felt like you had arrived on a different planet entirely.
(Click on a pic to embiggen and view the full gallery.)
As our time in Kanab wore on we'd find ourselves driving frequently past the entrance to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and we knew at some point we needed to pay a visit.
With Springdale to its west and Moab to its east, both flourishing from several decades of tourist boom, Kanab still seems like a forgotten step-child - unwilling or unable to catch up.
When I asked William James, manager for Dreamland Safari Tours, which day tour he recommended, he quickly replied, "White Pocket. It's an alien planet!"
Following a now established ritual of beginning our daily treks with coffee at The Rock Stop in Orderville, we decided to spend the next two days in and around Zion National Park.
There is an unquantifiable magic for me about the desert. Beyond the breathtaking and commanding vistas is a feeling of being in a place that is removed from everywhere else; a space that feels out of time, and one that is a shelter from the...