Evolution of an Artist: Eastbound to FL from CA, Day 1. Los Angeles to Route 9

After spending 2 months in California, I decided to take a different route on my way back to FL and travel mostly on HWY 40. I figured the weather would have improved significantly between mid January and mid March for me to do so safely while driving hotel Prius.

I really wished I had more time for my eastbound trip, but I had to get to FL relatively quickly and still wanted to hike a small section of the AT before I got home.
I picked my major stops and headed out on a Friday at 4am, wanting to beat rush hour traffic. It worked like a charm. In no time at all I had traveled thru very hot sections of the Mojave dessert and reached "Sin City".

In the last 20 years I visited Vegas 3 times. Although my visits were amusing enough (propelled by my company at the time), Vegas is not a place that I would want to visit again or "just because" on my own. Like an over populated city in China and unlike any place in the Greek Islands. I actually find it quite artificial, depressing and plastic so I gladly drove by it as quickly as I could (legally).

I was headed to where I knew I could find real beauty: Utah. Even if only for a short time and a small part of it, Utah never disappoints a nature lover.
I stopped at the Wal-Mart in Saint George for a quick resupply and made my way to Zion National Park.

Approaching the beauty of Zion brought tears to my eyes. It is one of those places where you feel incredibly fortunate to be alive. With all of this beauty mine to enjoy, I felt like the luckiest and most important person on earth. Yet, all this magnificence was also humbling and reminded me of how short my life is, how inconsequential I am in the large scheme of things. These are very freeing concepts for a person who has been bogged down by what seem to be insurmountable challenges in her recent past. Once again, I became aware of experiencing nature's healing in action.

I walked the only trail friendly to dogs within Zion with my guardian. The Pa'rus trail is a paved, 1.8 miles path (3.6 RT) that follows the Virgin river at the entrance of the park. Even tho it was early March, it was hot enough for BooBoo to need a cooling rest or two in a shady spot.

Our way out of the park was highlighted by the sun, as it set over the rocky peaks and graced us with an amazing display of colors and patterns from the formations before us.

Once I exited Zion I started to make my way to Grand Stair Escalante via route 9. After a failed attempt, I found a path that lead to a perfect spot, 1 mile away from the road, within the BLM property (free dry camping) where Booboo and I spent the night.

The night was beautifully dark, the sky bright with stars. A breeze cooled us gently.

Home for the night. BLM land, off route 9, 1 mile in.

If only I had not read a recent article about unexplained disappearances of hikers in federal lands, it would have been easier to fall asleep. Half entertained and half afraid of the thought of being a victim of an alien abduction, I looked up to the starry sky. I settled myself knowing that although (physically) I could be much worse off, I'm no prime specimen for a study of the human species. So I slept soundly all night. : )