CANYCA: California to New York (and back) pg. 12
We got up to a gated side road of slimy red mud just off the highway just in time to catch the sunset. The wind was picking up again at this time, and great heavy clouds of darkness obliterated the evening sky, and with them sputtering but intense rain. Lightning and thunder accentuated the wildness of the evening. To the east and west the sky was clear, however, and the orb of the sun, like the red giant it must someday become, cast lances of flame up underneath the pouting stormclouds and gave us not only an intense farewell show, but a rainbow to boot. Standing in the mud directly under buzzing high-tension transmission wires in an electrical rainstorm was a pretty memorable experience! Recommended for lunatics I'd say!
As we headed back into Moab for some grub and fuel, at least one distinct lightning flash of multiple forks left echoes of itself and the surrounding desert imprinted on my retinas in the most brilliant electric purple I'd ever imagined. There were other electrical discharges, but this last huge one was too stunning to believe. Another final visit to the rock shop, some killer salmon cakes, and fuel for the bus, and we undertook another one-and-a-half hours of driving to get back to Green River, where we pretty much just collapsed in exhaustion. I had big plans for the morning, however!
I clawed myself up out of sleep and into cold wakefulness at five-thirty to the tune of a cell-phone alarm, gathered my charged batteries, water, and camera case, and headed up to the mysterious mesas and canyons that surrounded the cabin and edged the river. That camera case was heavy, I soon noticed, and cumbersome as well. And my jacket and sweatshirt were too much for the incomprehensible desert wind, which seemed to be swirling in anticipatory gusts as the world waited for the sun to rise. The stillness was absolute. Except for that tiny dark figure picking its way up the backbone of a ridgeline to nowhere: The end of the trail was a jutting outcropping of tortured rock, encrusted with lichen, and strangely marked by the ravages of the elements. The rocks and scree fell away to three sides, and above it all, at unattainable heights, rose the visage of a venerable and ancient cliff. Beyond the mesas and plateaus was mystery, as well as the depths of the canyons below: I was now in a realm of vertical and diagonal lines as opposed to the horizontal reality we are usually found to exist. How startling it was to realize this!
It was this spot that I chose to resolutely await the rising of the sun over the southeastern rim of the world. I was correct in fearing the lack of cooperation by the weather gods, though. As it turned out, the resplendence I was waiting for got itself dampened in an untimely manner by the sudden materialization of the only clouds in the sky. These skimpy little excuses for meteorological phenomena popped up out of nowhere just as the actual disc of the sun was supposed to cast its pellucid rays over the rocky vale below, and dashed my hopes of the ultimate desert sunrise shot, but I paid that subtle disappointment no mind, for the experience and the views were beautiful anyway, and it was well worth the much-needed exercise. The sheer solitude and indifference of the place was stunning me with its elegance, and for a moment, the motivational impulses to use a camera at all were shown to be trite and without substance ... but that soon passed, because I realized that I was not going to attain godhead all at once, there on my rock, and that the camera is one of the excuses I still feel I need to get myself out in the great Nowheres of the world and simply be. I'll allow myself that crutch for now!
I got back to the cabin later than expected, but all was well, and we struck out to Green River proper. First stop: Melon stand! A good time to visit that town is harvest season, that's for sure. Next: A charmingly funky desert coffee shop. A veritable oasis of culture ... entire movies have been based on less! Then back on the road once more....this time our goal was to cross Utah and catch dinner and rest that night in Ely, Nevada. So westward we went.....
