MarkandJim.com

Our journey across southern Utah has now taken us to all five of the state’s spectacular national parks. After Zion and Bryce Canyon we made an overnight stop at Capitol Reef National Park, then settled into Moab for a few days to visit the Canyonlands and Arches parks.

My mom and dad truly love these parks, and it’s been fun to spend time with them and share their enthusiasm. The natural beauty here is incredible, and each of the five parks has quite a distinct personality.

Jim and I have done some incredible hikes through these parks, concluding our visit yesterday with the toughest one of the week. We completed a 7.2 mile loop through Arches National Park, including a segment defined as a “primitive trail,” marked by signs warnings of “difficult hiking.”

Here in the litigious United States, signs like that don’t scare us too much. But we soon found ourselves in some surprisingly precarious positions. At one point we had to slide across a crazy narrow, slippery ledge with nothing to hold onto, virtually no place to put your feet, etc. For several minutes on that ledge I found myself fairly terrified to continue ahead and equally afraid to go back. I eventually gritted my teeth and got through it, but I do feel like I was one little slip away from a deathly plunge into a rocky canyon. I guess adventure can still be found, even here in lawyerly America.

While Utah is incredibly beautiful, it’s mostly not a place for epicurean pleasures. Food has largely been mediocre, and obnoxious Mormon-insired liquor regulations make it hard to get a decent cocktail. But Moab has proved to be a little oasis with a plethora of cute shops, adventure outfits, and a couple pretty decent restaurants. And to our great surprise, the town is livened up this week by colorful rainbow flags and banners proclaiming “Moab Gay Adventure Week.” Who knew?