On Saturday, February 11, 2023, Sean and I returned to southeastern Utah’s portion of the immense Colorado Plateau. The plateau sprawls across 130,000 square miles of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Its huge uplift extends from the Colorado Rockies in the east to the Utah’s Wasatch Range in the west. It’s southwestern edge rises as Arizona’s Mogollon Rim above the Sonoran Desert. It encompasses Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, and Mesa Verde National Parks. It includes dozens of other Park units, including Dinosaur, Colorado, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Bears Ears National Monuments. And it encompasses the Navajo and Ute Nations, as well as hundreds of sacred sites like Chaco Canyon, Shiprock, Sleeping Ute Mountain, and Canyon de Chelly.

February 10 is Sean’s and my anniversary (meeting, not marriage). Since the trip itself would mark our sixteenth anniversary, we didn’t do anything particular for it that Friday evening, February 10. We planned to go out to dinner in Moab to mark our anniversary. Plus we had an early 8am flight the next morning.

Instead, Josh and Jimmy came over to watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race and The Last of Us, neither of which I have much interest in. I tried to get a good night’s sleep, but that didn’t really happen.

Nevertheless, next morning, Saturday, February 11, 2023, we were at O’Hare early enough to have time for breakfast from Tortas Frontera.

Sean executed his airport dining hack of getting a McDonalds hash brown to break into his meal while waiting for our order to be ready at Frontera.

The sky was clear that morning over the Great Plains, but grew cloudy shortly after we began crossing the Rocky Mountains.

We dropped beneath the cloud layer and were treated to a misty view of the rapidly shrinking Great Salt Lake as we approached Salt Lake City.

It was very snowy. If we’d been headed skiing we’d have been thrilled.

On the ground, it felt like we were the only folks arriving at Salt Lake City International who weren’t going skiing.

Salt Lake is one of the airports where Enterprise lets you specifically reserve a Jeep Wrangler. It was a no brainer that we would want one for some of the more rugged parts of the Parks on our itinerary.

After grabbing our Jeep, we drove into downtown Salt Lake to Trolley Square to get lunch and supplies at Whole Foods and lattes from an indy coffee shop.

Then it was time to turn on the podcasts—Las Culturistas and Yo, Is This Racist?—and drive up and over the Wasatch Range.

We rolled into Moab at about a quarter to four.

The return to the Radcliffe Hotel was very pleasant. They were able to accommodate us in the room we’d requested, the same suite we’d had the year before.

Up in our room, we unpacked and settled in.

Sean had liked the room’s decor the year before so much that over the twelve months between visits, we’d replaced our dishes with the Crate and Barrel set the room was stocked with. We’d also gotten some furniture pieces that reflected the style of this suite at the Radcliffe.

After unpacking, we headed out to get perishable groceries.

Dinner was takeout from Moab Brewing Company across the street, which we ate in our room while sharing a bottle of wine and watching Poker Face.

We were in bed by 9pm.

Next morning, Sunday, February 12, I was awake early enough to catch some morning light on the Moab Rim opposite our room’s balcony.

Sean was still sleeping, so I went downstairs to the lobby cafe and returned with sticky buns and coffee. Then I turned to some Bold Bison potential client proposals, which were due that coming week.

Sean was feeling under the weather. That winter of 2023, he would be sick each month (with something different each time) from January through April. He was some degree of miserable for months.

After breakfast in the room, we packed up some day hiking equipment and headed out around 10:15am. Our destination was the Island in the Sky, a vast peninsula jutting south into the heart of Canyonlands National Park.

(Hey Park Service, what’s up with the text layout of this sign? Why are “National” and “Park” so far apart?)

At the entrance station, there was no one behind us so we took the opportunity to buy our Annual Pass for 2023.

Then we headed to the nearby Island in the Sky Visitor Center to stamp our Passports to our National Parks. I also got a membership to the friends’ group, Canyonlands Natural History Association, and picked up the detailed Trails Illustrated maps for Island in the Sky and The Needles, the two districts of Canyonlands National Park we’d be visiting that week.

Across the Park Road from the Visitor Center, we got our first glimpse of the grandeur of Canyonlands National Park.

La Sal Mountains Overlook was just that, a view beyond the cliffs and canyons of the Park to the distant La Sal Mountains beyond Moab to the east. They had been a visual touchstone during our trip the year before, and even though we could see them from the balcony of our hotel room, it was great to see them from this wonderful vantage point.

With this first big view to tantalize us, we were ready to drive down to Grand View Point, where the road and land both end.