Capitol Reef

At the end of February my outdoor creative writing class took a 3-day trip to Capitol Reef National Park and stayed at the field station there which runs on its own solar power--totally off the grid. Down there in the desert, it's a different world, untouched by the rush and bustle of most places. I couldn't get over how quiet it was there, especially at night. And the stars--my gosh. Here's a little excerpt from a journal entry I made while sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the valley beneath the field station:

The quality of the sunlight is different here. I feel like my vision is clearer--I can see further and the colors are vivid and deep. 
The valley spread out beneath the cliff is an oval bowl full of green. The first thing I noticed was how many different shades of green there are in just a few square feet. There are short, round trees that are like something between pine and sagebrush that are a dark, rich green. Then underneath is the actual sage, the most beautiful combination of pale green, hazy blue, and silver. The other shrubs and grasses range from bright green, almost yellow, to a dark kind of lavender purple. Then always the underlying layer of rusty, sun-baked earth. 
The oval dish is segmented in random shapes by an old wooden fence that snakes through the valley. Even though it is man-made, it somehow doesn't feel out of place here. As if the wood of the trees conspired with the dirt to grow this structure out of the ground, if for no other purpose than to have a change of scenery. 
Like the sunlight, the quality of silence is different here. I noticed it first last night in bed and I wondered what made the quiet of this desert night so different from the night back home. I realized it was the combination of the absence of any traffic whatsoever and the total darkness. Out here there is no light at night except the stars and the barely visible sliver of moon. When the darkness rolls in, it is not like a muffling blanket, but rather like dark water dispersed in the sky that makes the black-blue air cold and clear. 


On our second day we climbed to Cassidy Arch, what an amazing view:

We stood on top of the arch itself (a scary thing to see from the other side) and generally frolicked around. Then our last day, we climbed this mountain:

It looks impossible, but it actually wasn't that bad. We played in the slot canyons for hours that morning, climbing with our backs against one wall and our feet against the other, shimmying around and giggling like crazy. 

Needless to say, it was an amazing trip. I love my whole class, and it was so neat to bond in the desert, really getting to know each other, staying up late and telling funny stories til we were all crying and doubled up with laughter. There's really nothing like it.