At the Bottom of the Ocean

10 days off.

We were going to go to Crack Cave (insert drug joke here) for the equinox. There is a set of Indian pictographs there that are illuminated through a crack in the cave wall at sunrise on the morning of the equinox.

Forecast: rain and snow. We'll hike instead.

So. Onto part two. We've got a motel room in Monticello, Utah (sunny and warm all week!), so we can take a couple day trips into the Needles section of the Canyonlands, and let the girls swim for hours in the motel pool in the mornings and evenings (they'd swim all day, every day of the vacation if it were up to them).

Then, the raison d'être of the trip: three days camping at Arches National Park. Scrambling around on rocks and cliffs and canyons and valleys all day long. Paying the girls a quarter for every lizard they find. Thinking about how a million years ago this red and grey rock was all at the bottom of an ancient ocean, and imagining great prehistoric fish swimming lazily over your head. And at the end of the day, building a cozy campfire, eating supper, watching the night sky descend, the stars slowly reveal themselves. Sirius. Capella. Aldebaran.

See you in two weeks.