Where to Next?

A critical decision needed to be made, where to next?

Since we were near Yosemite, it only seemed logical to direct ourselves south.  California is full of National Parks, and we were near the best of them.  Yosemite, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequioa National Park, and Death Valley National Park were all within hours away.  And yet, when we looked at our route, traveling on the eastern side of the mountain range, it didn’t make sense.

A night in Yosemite, a night in Mono Lake (a place that I especially want to experience), and then…. Two nights in Death Valley, one night near the Valley of Fire in Nevada, four days in Arizona with my family, and another day driving through the desert in southern Cal to reach the coast… So much heat, Henry and I had already made a quick stop in Redding, CA with temperatures exceeding 100 and wanted no part of the heat.  It felt like I was looking at nine days without respite, nine days of increased stress on the vehicle, and nine days of heat exhaustion, sunburns and dehydration.

Therefore, we changed our course, drastically, in fact, to head east toward Salt Lake City.  Once we cleared the barren Nevada territory, we would at the foot of the mountains and cooling off.  Only one full day in the car…. Driving past this…

And this…

And this…

And more of this.

And then I began to fall in love with the colors, the subtleties and shifting shadows, the layers of transition from one time period to the next. After 12 hours, in and out of the car, from Tahoe to Salt Lake City, I craved art.  I craved painting.  I craved so much… The dry, cracked high desert mirrored my soul, thirsting for knowledge, art, and balance in a new way.