This was one heck of a whirlwind tour of south-eastern Utah.  Over the Thanksgiving weekend

of November 2005, Tracy and I took a long road trip that hit the following locations: Green

River State Park, Goblin Valley State Park, Valley of the Gods (BLM), Monument Valley Navajo

Tribal Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Natural Bridges National Monument,

Capitol Reef National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  Whew!  I get

tired just thinking about it!  We put about a thousand miles on my truck in less than three days,

but we saw some of the most beautiful countryside we had ever seen.  This corner of Utah

was truly amazing.  There were times when we drove over 100 miles and didn't see another

human being or any sign of human existence besides the road we were on.  A couple of times

at night, we went several hours without seeing any headlights, streetlights or house lights.  I

mean, this area was truly in the middle of nowhere...just the way I like it!  The rock formations

were amazing.  Goblin Valley, Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley were incredible, as

you can get a hint of them from the pictures.  Natural Bridges had some Anasazi ruins, and

that made us get philosophical about pre-historic man and how hard life would have been for

them.  The canyons in Capitol Reef were exactly what I've been looking for in my quest to hike

slot canyons.  In all, the trip was absolutely amazing.  The only bad part of the whole trip was

the sub-zero wind chill temperatures that we experienced in a couple of the places.  The area

outside of Capitol Reef was the worst, but once we got inside the canyons, the weather was

pretty nice.  All in all, though, the solitude, massive rock formations and overwhelming beauty

definitely made this area of south-eastern Utah one of the prettiest places we have been.