Canyonlands N.P., Utah.

The morning of October 20th found me in a bed after four nights in the car and easy access to a shower. I was going to be clean and have clean clothes at the same time, this is now a big deal to me.When I now smell clean washing, it makes me very happy. I am not saying that I would buy a perfume that smelt like clean washing, but I would consider it. I suppose it's a good thing but I am now beginning to realise what I really think is important to me and the things I can actually live without. I don't expect this to continue after I finished travelling, but it's enough for now. Maybe I will just think a little longer before buying something,before acquiring another thing, we'll see.
I jumped in the shower and hogged it, it was time to shave.Clean and ready to face the world I drove out of Moab, which I should describe. Moab sits in a valley that was created by the sinking of salt. The valley had once contained a lake, when the lake dried up it left huge salt deposits and this sank and flattened to create the valley floor. The valley walls are made up of the red sandstone I had first seen in Page, Arizona. In fact the whole Grand Circle area is close,physically and geologically, it's a very cool area.I went to Dead Horse State Park, it cost me $10 to enter, for the day. Most entry into a national park is for the week, I grumbled to one of the rangers as I couldn't use my pass. Ah well. I had come to see Dead Horse Point, another cliff that had been carved by the Colorado river. The point had got it's name as it was used by cowboys to corral horses, the point at the edge of the mesa is only thirty feet wide at it's narrowest. The story goes that a herd of horses were corralled here, the cowboys took the horses they wanted and they left the rest. There was no water there and the horses died, within sight of the river. It's such a sad story. Especially for such a beautiful area.
I left the state park and went into Canyonlands N.P., the area here is exactly as it sounds a series of canyons cut into the mesa. You can drive around here to various view points but I wanted to get out of the car and do some hiking, I needed the exercise. The weather forecast was for intermittent showers, the sky was overcast but I wasn't too concerned. The ranger in the visitor recommended a hike for me and off I went. I was maybe thirty minutes into the hike when it started to rain, I was determined not to go back so continued. If the rain got too heavy I would try to take shelter under a tree, but there wasn't much shelter to be had. I buttoned up my rain jacket and continued on my way. So when the rain stopped I was happy to say the least, I hoped that I would have the chance to dry off. My feet were warm and dry thanks to my boots, I loved my boots in that moment. I can cope with most things but if I have cold or wet feet, or worst of all cold and wet feet, I am done for. My relief was short lived, it started to hail on me. By this time my jacket and trousers were soaked, I wasn't sure how far I was into the hike, it was only six miles, but I figured that it was better to continue and hope that I was nearer to the end than the finish. The hail wasn't the last of it, the weather gods had apparently decided that they had been too good to me, it started to thunder and lightening. Using my poor memories of my science classes I figured that the lightening was at least two miles awe. I didn't even worry when it was one mile away, but when it moved overhead I started to get concerned.I started to walk a little faster, I did receive a present though. At the end of the hike I had to climb back up to the canyon top and I saw a water fall that had been created by the rain. It was a sign of life that I hadn't expected to see in this normally arid landscape and knowing that I would probably be the only person to see it made it even more special. There will be other water falls in that area but it won't be the same. That was my waterfall.
I got back to the car and got changed into whatever clothes were there. That's one benefit on having lived out of your car, I hadn't out everything back into my rucksack and I had a change of clothes. Not very stylish to be sure, but dry clothes and that was my only concern. I thought about waiting in the car to see if the rain would let it, but I didn't think it would, so headed back into town. I got lunch at a local diner, went to the post office and was back in the hostel about 3pm. I headed for the shower and settled down to email and watch t.v. for the afternoon. I was a bit down as I hadn't seen as much of Canyonlands as I would have liked and I had wanted to do another hike in the afternoon. The rain did ease up in the evening, but I was done for the day.I could only hope that this weather wasn't here to stay.