Day 23 - Tellride - Moab

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After waking up early, packing up, and then waiting around for the daily ritual of striking camp, we sadly left Colorado behind, a fact I didn’t really like, but I have definitely decided I am coming back to the Centennial Stat one day, and we headed into Utah.
We heard about Graham and Neal’s exploits from the previous night, the highlights being that Neal lost his glasses whilst walking on all fours out on the street.

Almost straight away the change in temperature was evident. Like yesterday our site in Moab was right in the middle of town, and after setting up camp, we headed out to the nearby Arches National Park to be dropped off for a series of small walks of a mile or so. Sadly Zoe’s hip was still playing up so she stayed with Todd in the van, and I took advantage of this by getting her to look after my two hats when we were travelling in the van.
First of all we walked through a valley of high columns of rock called Park Avenue. I am sporting my Indy hat, and was quickly getting into my Indiana mode, trekking through the valley to the car park on the other end. Being in the valley and the heat once more, I took in the shapes and figures the eroded rocks on either side offered, and struggled to believe how real it all looked.
The next mini hike was at Balanced Rock, where the centre of attention is a large rock seeming to defy gravity and balance perfectly on a similar size rock underneath. Sadly this sight won’t be lasting much longer, as it is predicted that the rock will finally fall at some in the near future.
Lastly was the ‘Spectacles’ arches, which offers a wonderful view of miles and miles of vast open land. After posing for a big group photo in the arch itself, I kept looking out for Mark who seemed to have gone missing going to look at a nearby rock formation. Turned out, he had followed the track all around the rock to the other side of the arch and walked amongst the open vastness. At this point, as I looked out at the open land in front of me, I started thinking about the Wild West and imagining what life was like living out here. This place seemed to have really caught my attention and giving me inspiration.
The views in the Park just seemed to go on forever, and even though the sun is blazing, I could easily stay out there forever it was so beautiful.

But we had to get back as Todd had another treat for us. We picked up 8 or 9 pizzas and headed for an hour into the nearby hills to a small destination point called Dead Horse Point. As we made our way slowly to the tourist area, we passed a small Hollywood-looking film company finishing off loading up and leaving.
Unlike how I thought it got its name, basically horses falling over the edges, it was a popular feeding point for horses, with the main food being towards the edges, until these areas were fenced off cutting the supply to the much needed view.
When we arrived, there were barely any cars in the car park and no one around the roofed section over looking one side of the point. Todd told us that many tourists claim this place is better than the Grand Canyon, but I will safe my vote until after we have been there as well.

The pizzas were placed to the side and we all quickly loaded up on our allocated slices. Where we were eating, there were a couple of ledges beyond the walls of the site, which we all climbed over to get some pretty awesome pictures of below. The next ledge on, Jess and Graham set up a gag for a video on Graham’s camera. Jess was sitting on the wall looking back at the camera, pretending she was making a video postcode for someone back home. She then pretended she had slipped off the wall and falls the other side, screaming for a long time as if she has falling right off the edge. It was quite funny to watch as they messed it up a couple of times. Even the final outcome brought a laugh from me as well.

At the point of the Point, there were two levels to the viewpoint with a dozen other tourists still there. If it wasn’t for them being around, the area would be so silent and peaceful, something I tried to embrace by taking a nearby ledge overlooking the canyon and Colorado River below. We had planned to have a pizza dinner and watch the sunset at the Point, so I knew we were going to be there for some time still. I brought my camera, water, P King and my journal, and began taking my seat and just be at peace with my thoughts, before updating my entries.
Mark, Scott and Zoe came over when I first took my place, but I was soon left on my own to write down my thoughts and opinions. Unbeknown to me, Neal, G, Sarah and others had captured pictures of me on my ledge, at first just overlooking the wonderful view and then writing.

As I sat there just overlooking the immense canyon taking in the varied colours of the rocks and canyons as the sun was slowly setting, I felt so at peace with everything, wanting to stay there forever. I felt a million miles away from all my cares (as I write this now, several months later, I am reliving that night once more, wishing to be at the point again, millions of miles from my cares and troubles). It was all truly awe inspiring, so beautiful and spectacular at the same time.

The sunset was amazing, just watching the sun slowly disappear behind the land on the horizon, as the whole valley became overshadowed by the darkness. After the sun was gone, there were still varied colours and stages of all the rocks, valleys and canyons, and still made for a wonderful sight.
We were due to leave at around 9pm, but it had been decided that we were staying longer to watch the stars come out.

At one point I stopped my writing and took notice of the first star appearing in the ever darkening sky. The light from the sun was still visible over the distant horizon.
The night-time was hitting and the other tourists had now left. The wind had slowly picked up and it was even more peaceful than before.

As I looked out at the night sky and carry on with my thoughts, and I felt I was beginning to change and be more assertive when needed. I also realised that I was making new friends who I hoped will stay in touch after this all ends. Mark had already invited me to Manilla, something I would try to keep.
One of the reasons I wanted to do this trip was to find the real me, and maybe I am starting to do so.

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