Jason Wells

I don’t quite remember when I acquired the ambition of seeing Glacier National Park, but it certainly was years ago. There were plenty of reasons to go. It was reputed to be a vast and astonishingly beautiful wilderness. It was far away–in Montana, bordering Canada–yet still within range of a road trip in the van. We would be able to camp out of the van there. The hiking and photography were likely to be exceptional. But most of all, for me, it was about the glaciers themselves. I had never seen a glacier other than from a distance of miles or in a photograph, and here, I would be able to touch them. And these glaciers are special.

In 1850, Glacier National Park had 150 glaciers; today it has but 35. They are melting away, and not gradually. Climate modeling suggests that they will all be gone by 2020–just nine years from now. When they are gone, the entire local ecosystem will change, becoming more arid. This damnable fact hangs over Glacier like tragic inevitability. Glacier’s fate is sealed; it is doomed. I couldn’t do anything about it, but at least Heather and I could see how it is now, before it is gone forever.

So I was motivated to get out there sooner rather than later. As it turned out, this year was good timing. From what I’d been reading, it looked like early September would be the ideal time to make the trip; after the teeming hordes left, but before it got too cold. Heather and I sometimes make a pilgrimage out to Burning Man in that very timeframe, but we’d just been there last year. I was happy to do this instead.

We began to make serious preparations in late August. I’d resigned from Semantic, which jarred all of our future plans, but despite that, we decided to stick to this one. I’m applying to the UCSD Cognitive Science Ph.D. program, and taking the trip meant splitting my GRE preparations awkwardly in half, but I preferred that to waiting another year. Anyway I was stressed out about the test, so getting a break from it would be good.

We planned a two-week trip, nominally taking three days to drive there, three days back and spending the rest of the time in the park proper. The route I planned essentially followed the 15 from end to end, taking us through six states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Montana. To that we would later add a brief day trip to the Canadian province of Alberta.

September 5th. The van was loaded; we pulled out and were off by mid-morning. This was later than I’d originally hoped, and now reaching Salt Lake by the end of the day looked unrealistic. But I’d make up as much time as possible.

As we took the 15 across Southern California, we hit the odd little rainstorm now and again. We also saw a lot of cops, presumably on the prowl for ebullient LA partiers heading to Vegas for Labor Day weekend. The timing was such that we’d just miss seeing playa-dust covered vehicles going the other way, returning from the playa. Heather noticed a cool teardrop trailer on a truck we passed, and that got us daydreaming about getting one to go with the van. They’re pretty neat. As we neared Primm, I got my first encounter with $5 gas. Not so neat.

Passing through Las Vegas was uneventful, we didn’t even stop. I actually didn’t notice passing through the tiny chunk of Arizona sliced by the 15. Soon enough we were in Utah. As we intersected a rainstorm and sunset, a double rainbow emerged, only the second I’ve seen.

I made very good time, driving 11 hours and ranging between 80-90mph much of the way. The van is seemingly invisible to the highway patrol. We made it to Provo, making up a lot of time we lost on the late departure. We crashed at a Spring Hill Suites, a Standard-like hotel–quite a thing to find in Provo, but Heather is resourceful.

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ADDITIONAL. For your convenience, here are links to the rest of the seven-part Glacier National Park travel journal:

• Sept. 6-7th: Provo to the Park, West Entrance.
• Sept. 8th: Avalanche Lake, Lake McDonald Lodge.
• Sept. 9th: A Day on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
• Sept. 10th: The Hike to Grinnell Glacier, Many Glacier Hotel.
• Sept. 11th: Waterton Lakes National Park in the Red Jammer.
• Sept. 12-16th: Departure, Bigfork, Salt Lake and the Return Home.

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Note: This is the 4th (and last) in a series of entries in my Monument Valley travel photo journal. If this is new to you, please start with the first one for the full story of our adventures.

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Having checked out Monument Valley proper the day before, Heather and I took a day trip Sunday to explore the nearby area. Basically we took a huge looping route: from our camp near the Utah-Arizona border, we headed north on US 163, continued north on UT 261, then took UT 95 east, then returned south on US 191 back to 163. This is part of the vast Trail of the Ancients.

This route is very rural, totally gorgeous and takes you through a bunch of really cool places. I highly recommend it if you visit the area. Gas up before you go and bring food and water. I’m not kidding, it’s very rural. Don’t expect gas stations or restaurants.

The first stop on the highway was Mexican Hat. A unique and very unlikely rock formation near the San Juan River. Crazy how a natural geological process would produce something so fragile, so delicately balanced.

We continued on to Valley of the Gods. It’s not as well known as Monument Valley though I’m not sure why; it has very impressive sandstone formations similar to what I saw the day before, many buttes and pinnacles ranging from small to huge. Plus, this is on BLM land, not tribal land, so access is not restricted. There’s a 17-mile dirt road, FR 242, connecting 261 and 163, that winds and meanders through it. It’s not quite two lanes and is technical, rough enough that I wouldn’t recommend taking an RV or smallish car through it. It reminded me of that dusty road into Guadalupe Canyon in Baja, a pretty wild ride.

We pulled over several times to get the lay of the land, and even climbed to the top of one of the buttes. From there was a fantastic view and total silence. After an hour or two in the valley we returned to 261 and headed north as it began the 1200ft. climb up to the top of Cedar Mesa. There’s an unpaved switchback taking you up, far above the valley floor.

Next stop was Natural Bridges National Monument. This is operated by the National Park Service, unlike anything else we’d seen. It has complex terrain, a number of natural stone bridges as well as archeological sites. The Anasazi, the Ancient Pueblo, once lived here. Ruins are nestled deep in a crack in a cliff wall.

There’s a very well paved one-way, one-lane road, Bridge View Drive, that winds through the park. You can take this if you want to see the natural bridges but don’t want to hike. There’s also an outlook high above the Anasazi ruins, so far above that in order to produce the two photos above, I used a telephoto lens and crop the original down to the center of the image before scaling it to post here. Protecting archaeological sites is important, but I was surprised they kept visitors that far away.

The last stop was Blanding, a town 45 minutes away, and the only town on this circuit. There we had a very late lunch. I ate my first Navajo taco, and for those who’ve never tried one, I highly recommend it. After lunch we drove back, returning to camp at dusk, exhausted but happy. We had a terrible dinner at the restaurant near the lodge–won’t eat there again!–and eventually returned to our campsite and retired.

Next day. We got an early start, struck camp, packed up and drove home. I was looking to get home before sunset if possible, so I went about 85-90mph most of the way. (At the risk of tempting the speeding ticket gods, I dare to say out loud that I never get a ticket when I drive the van. It’s been four years, so I don’t think it’s just luck. Cops somehow can’t see it going fast. Have I said I love my van?) I took the 40 back on a whim, mostly because of a disagreement between two GPS devices. That took us through Needles, Barstow, San Bernadino and finally to San Diego.

Well, how can I wrap this up? It was awesome! This really was a great trip, it blew the doors off anything I expected. Totally fun, interesting, challenging outdoor adventures in absolute beauty all weekend long.

Note: This is the 3rd in a series of entries in my Monument Valley travel photo journal. If this is new to you, please start with the first one for the full story of our adventures.

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The drive in from San Diego, through Yuma, Phoenix and Flagstaff, then just crossing the Utah border, took 14 hours. It went smoothly overall aside from a few mapping hiccups near the end. We had a full moon and lightning from thunderheads on the horizon for the last leg of the trip. We got into camp around 11pm local time–turns out the Navajo Nation follows daylight savings when the rest of Arizona doesn’t, which meant the camp had been closed for over an hour–but we found a site on our own. The highest one in the camp actually, with a great view. It was a bit slanted so I used the levelers under one wheel, but even so I was a little surprised no one had taken such a prime spot.

We unloaded the van and tried out the new lights Heather put in. Two lines of amber LEDs running lengthwise from the cabin to the tailgate along the top of each interior wall. It bathes the interior in a warm indirect light coming from behind the valances, just enough to see by but not more. They run off the internal 12V electrical system and the power draw is almost undetectable. It’s a major enhancement to the van.

We stayed up for a while, had a few drinks and enjoyed the view of the stars and the sandstone buttes, just visible in ghostly moonlight. It was eerie how quiet it was. I’m not used to camping without music from every direction and we tried not to wake other people as we set up camp. Eventually we finished and crashed.

Saturday morning I awoke to this view, right out the tailgate of the van:

There weren’t that many tent campers here, mostly RVs. After lunch we registered and got some information and local maps. Access to Monument Valley itself isn’t unrestricted. You have an 17-mile loop road you can take–it’s a fairly technical dirt road actually–and otherwise you need to be on a tour with a Navajo guide. Saturday night we went on a full moon tour. I wasn’t too thrilled about being on a tour but it’s only for the valley itself. There are a bunch of other parks and destinations nearby to check out, and we did that the next day.

That afternoon, before the tour, we went on a little hike. There were three trailheads from our campsite and none require guides, since they don’t go onto tribal land. I didn’t expect there to be much to see, but damn, I was wrong! Here are a few photos from that hike, which terminated at a natural stone arch. I’d always wanted to see one.

After the high-altitude hike we made our way back to camp. Had a breather, a few drinks and later on, dinner. The full moon tour started at dusk. It was like this initially:

I don’t have photos of the moonlit buttes, but I hope this gives some sense of the experience. The sunset-lit buttes were staggering, and I doubt any photograph can do it justice. There is a deep silence to the area; there are a few Navajo settlements here and there, but mostly the valley is empty. Their towering enormity and incredible age–and the silent stillness–evoke calmness, reflection and a broadening humility. I felt connected from the perspective of the yawning ages, far prior to the advent of humanity. I sensed how the countless busy people and their dusty little machines buzzing around nowadays is a virtually unnoticeable blip compared to the biological and geological processes that resulted in this awesome creation.

This was just what I had in my mind for what I wanted out of this trip. It was already exceeding my optimistic expectations. End of the first full day.

Note: This is the 2nd in a series of entries in my Monument Valley travel photo journal. If this is new to you, please start with the first one for the full story of our adventures.

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Last night was a flurry of activity. The van is loaded with gear, I’m reviewing the map and Heather’s making breakfast. We take off at 8am. Weather looks good, should be a nice ride up to Monument Valley. Target arrival is 8pm.

I discovered late last night how totally shot the bite valve on my hydration pack is, but the bike shops are closed, so I’ll try for one in Phoenix or Flagstaff. Other than that, everything’s set. Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Whoa, this snuck up on me! Been busy as hell and the months fly by, so there you go. Next weekend Heather and I take the road trip out to Monument Valley, but I had no plans set at all when I woke up this morning. We’re taking the van, so all we need is a place to camp, just to park really. The trip being over Labor Day weekend, making reservations this morning was cutting it close, but it worked out. We’ve got a campsite–with view of the buttes.

Though I put the trip into the calendar months back, I’ve only begun looking into it this morning. The map makes it out to be a 11-12 hour drive from San Diego through Yuma, Phoenix and Flagstaff and on up to the Arizona/Utah border. I see it’s close to the Four Corners. This is the land of the Navajo Nation, the Kayenta region. It’s been in a million films, spaghetti westerns, Back to the Future III, even in the psychedelic part of 2001.

Being focused on software this year–and skipping Burning Man and a planned two-week trip in August, not coincidentally–makes this trip especially appealing. Neither of us have stayed in Monument Valley before and the images I’ve found of it are gorgeous. Getting out on the open road, windows open and music blasting, out into incredible natural beauty with my girl… yeah! I’ll throw the camera and the bikes into the van too, Hiking will give some awesome opportunities for photography and there’s mountain biking, that has to be great. Just a few more days.

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ADDITIONAL. For your convenience, here are links to the rest of the four-part Monument Valley travel journal:

• Sept. 4th: …And We’re Off
• Sept. 5th: Friday Night and Saturday
• Sept. 11th: Sunday and Monday

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