I have already driven 1,026 miles on this trip, which would have been more than enough to make it to the coast of California from my home in Boulder. Instead, you could say that I have been coasting, averaging just 171 miles per day. Today I moved only 75 miles closer to the coast.

Today I explored Zion National Park in southwestern Utah. The most famous and the oldest of the national parks in the state, Zion was also the busiest of the six national parks and monuments I have explored in the past five days. Perhaps the crowds even in this off-season were because this is a weekend, and Zion NP is only about 50 miles from St. George, Utah, where about 50,000 people live.
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Eating a hearty breakfast is one the the great joys in being on the road. Anywhere in America — even in a little settlement like Escalante — we can get a great breakfast.

To my mind the best one is a special order of three fried eggs, a double portion of sausage patties, and two or three cups of hot coffee. This really fuels the day and has almost no carbs.

Low-carbing has even been easy for lunch and dinner. Usually I’m hiking at lunch time or at least away from restaurants. So I have canned fish — sardines, mackerel, or tuna. When I’m near a restaurant I’ll have a salad. For dinner, as tonight, I’ll get a steak. One of the great things I’ve noticed about the out-of-the-way restaurants that I have been eating in is how nice and quiet they are. Partly it’s because there are only a couple of other parties eating there in this off-season.
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Tonight I’m staying in the tiny settlement of Escalante, population 800. I am the only guest at the only motel that is open for the winter. Only one restaurant is open. But both are completely satisfactory.

Escalante has resonated in my brain since I was a boy growing up on Western novels set in this wild land of southern Utah. It resonates with me the same way that Moab does for a younger generation.

Theoretically, Escalante is only 212 miles and 5 hours from Moab. But by dint of taking a back road through Capitol Reef National Park and several paved and dirt roads in the park the trip today took me 9 hours. Clearly, I am in no hurry.
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Staying an extra day in Moab gave me the chance to explore another nearby national park. The Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park is about 35 miles from the town. I went there this afternoon.

I had a leisurely morning after pushing myself hard yesterday — as evidenced by the 17,000 steps that my pedometer registered. I also needed to write an article this morning. So I am not quite “on vacation.”

Vacations shouldn’t be tiring. So I limited my steps to 12,000 today.
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This glorious day could not have been more different from the wet and dreary drive from Boulder to Grand Junction yesterday. Brilliant sunshine lit my way through the Colorado National Monument in the morning and Arches National Park in the late afternoon.

In between visiting these magnificent places for the first time I drove several hundred miles. But I got only 50 miles closer to California. In other words, I didn’t take the direct route and am now spending the night in a motel in Moab, Utah. In fact, I paid for two nights.
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In my quest to hike every mile of every trail in Boulder County I studied my maps today. Starting from my apartment in South Boulder, my eyes quickly hit on Windy Mesa and the Wind Tunnel Trail just to the south.

On a normally windy winter day this would be the last place I would want to hike. But the temperature reached 60 degrees here today, and the wind was light.

However, when I got to the trailhead I discovered that the city has permanently closed the Wind Tunnel Trail, which crossed the mesa. Instead, the new High Plains Prairie trail skirts it.
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Even years ago when I lived in Africa I was a dedicated amateur photographer. So dedicated, in fact, that I would hike miles through the bush to capture images of wildlife.

Once when I was on vacation in Uganda I heard that some of the world’s biggest and rarest rhinos were in a nearby game preserve. These Northern White Rhinoceros are, after the elephant, the most massive land animals in the world. They reach a weight of 6,000 pounds! They were pretty rare then and are even rarer now — only eight captive Northern White Rhinoceros are left in the world.
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Rabbit Mountain used to be called Rattlesnake Mountain. Both are supposedly plentiful here, but I didn’t see any of either today.

I did see lots of prairie dogs. Like this one running:

Running Dog

Lately, whenever I think of the Spring Brook Loop Trail, I think of Alison Krauss and her song, “New Favorite.” But Alison sings of jealousy, a trait that trails don’t have.

The Spring Brook Loop is my new favorite trail. It has everything I want: The trailhead is only five miles from my apartment, yet it’s totally away from civilization in the foothills of the Rockies. The trail is just steep enough to give me a good workout; it’s not rocky so I can make good time on it; and the uphill part comes first so I can coast down on the return trip. It is indeed a loop, the sort of trail that I love, because a loop gives you more views for your effort. It also has beautiful surroundings that aren’t totally closed in by forest.
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Since I didn’t get any exercise yesterday, I knew that I had to get out today. Otherwise, my slow-twitch muscles might not twitch so well.

The sports physiologists say that after about 48 hours of inactivity, we lose some of our slow-twitch muscle capacity. I want to stay fit so much that I braved miserable weather this morning. Quite windy, cold, and dark, the day didn’t attract many other people to the trails around Boulder. But it was good to have the trail to myself, especially after having to share the Brainard Lake area on Saturday with about two million other people.
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