Online Learning from the Road: You need to walk among the towering cliffs, or challenge your courage in a small narrow canyon

The day we left Flagstaff I had to track down a FedEx Kinkos to print and fax over my mid-term grades. This was a fairly easy process once I had the attention of the workers to show me how to operate the machines.

From Flagstaff we headed out with the advice from a friend to drive through Zion National Park and camp in Bryce Canyon.

When we started out on this journey Scott and I had decided that we wanted to avoid as many interstates as possible and travel on the scenic by-ways. The result was a continuous delight in the random, quirky little places we chanced upon. One of the greats was the Fredonia-Vermillion Cliffs Scenic By-Way through Arizona. These are some of the images we captured along this jaunt:

See road in the last picture? It got pretty tight in some spots along this by-way. As quickly as this valley opened up here at this point, we found ourselves climbing in altitude with the shrub giving way to tall pine trees that were similar to the flora we saw in Flagstaff. After being on the road for a while we began to see signage for the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We were only a few miles from where that great opening was. We decided to skip the Grand Canyon on this trip since we had been there only three years before. Being near the rim was enough this time.

As the sun began to fall below the horizon, we began to seek out campsites. We tried several places before we decided that Jacob Creek National Park Area would suit us for the night.

For this leg of the trip, away now from family and friends, we had to get into our stock of foodstuff. What do you eat on the road? For us it meant Oriental Flavor Top Ramen (the only vegetarian ramen out there, apparently) and Oreos and Chips Ahoy with iced tea. Yeah, it's simple and a little college freshman but it doesn't take much energy, it is quick, and it is filling enough. See Scott's happy, sated expression:

The mugs I received from one of the Philosophy students at U of C as a going away gift. I'm sure he had no idea how much these would be cherished and used. They are great for everything.

As it got dark we began to hear this high pitched squeaking above our heads, close and away, close and away, low and high. It dipped and dived, always squeaking. I finally realized, delightedly, that we had a colony of bats flying around above our campsite. While we sat listening, an older man and his son whom we had seen drive up on a motorcycle earlier, came over and chatted us up for an hour or two before they retired for the night. They were, as the father told us, on a father-son bike tour from Nebraska. They were part of the Christian Motorcycle Association and were planning for a rally later this fall. We shared pictures and adventures and finally learned that the father had grown up spending summers in Gunnison, CO. We explained that we had gone to school there, lived in Crested Butte for several years, and found one more connection on the road. It was nice to have company that evening. What a neat experience for that kid, spending summers on the back of his dad's bike, just cruising the States.

The next morning we departed Jacob's Creek early because the sun comes blazing in the tent at terrible hours. We kept to the scenic by-way and caught more pictures of rocks along the way to Zion. There are some bizarre, alien landscapes out in the Southwest.

We also saw the first of what would become an odd phenomenon (to me, at least) of placing letters on hills. This happens across this area of Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

And then the landscape changed. As you approach Zion National Park, the rocks change color and texture. I kept blinking, widening my eyes, trying to take it all in, hoping my little camera could capture the emotion of what I felt (you can laugh at me here, it's ok...). I had never seen landscape like this before and I felt tiny and very young. I thought, "I get it! I understand the national park thing. Zion, you are amazing!"