Twenty years ago Paty and I travelled in what is known as the Grand Circle, starting in the Grand Canyon and visiting among others Boulder, Monument Valley in the Navajo reservation, The Arches and Bryce National Parks, etc. Most of the time she did the driving, for two reasons: one that she claimed to like driving and second I did not and still do not like driving. Also with this arrangement I had hands free to take many photos, some of which you can see in the page “u.s.a. THE GRAND CIRCLE” of my blog.
The whole trip was a great experience, we were able to see wonders of nature that surprised or humbled us but of course, it meant also sometimes very long days and even partly nights as getting from one town or hotel to the one in the next National Park was not always easy or short.
One of those long days we wanted to get from The Arches National Park to Bryce National Park but had run late, so we had to travel by night a good stretch of the road. GPS and other electronic gadgets to tell you where you were and how far to your destination were not available and certainly our car was not equipped with them. However we know how to read maps and follow the right roads and obey the traffic signals. So we were driving towards Bryce canyon on a secondary road that according to the maps was on the edge of a precipice on both sides, so we had to be careful not to get out of the road. We were chatting, as usual, about all and sundry when suddenly Paty tells me that there was a car following us relatively close. So she decided to drive a bit faster, but so did the other car, then at one point she decided to go slower and the other did likewise, so obviously they were shadowing us like in the best films of cloak and dagger. In a film this kind of suspense is part of the show and it is expected but in real life, when you are the cloak and the dagger is following you it is far less funny. To make it all more “interesting” of course it was very late at night, we were in the middle of nowhere, driving through towns that were called Marysvale, Junction, Circleville, Panguitch etc. in a country that was not ours and although both of us are proficient in English, one never knows. These places were totally deserted, no signs of an open café nor a hotel and not even a bar, so we had to decide either stop and confront our shadow or continue driving as if nothing had happened and hope for the best.
We were still a bit away from Bryce, our destination that night so the decision was to continue as calm as possible and if and when we saw an open public place stop and call for help. The open place did not materialize and we came to the crossroad to Bryce and just to make sure, we continued a few hundred meters and then still being followed. Paty made an unexpected and unannounced U-Turn and very quickly got into the road to Bryce. The other car had to continue a little bit until they found a place to turn and did so, probably not very happy to have been fooled.
The precious couple of minutes of this manoeuvre gave us time to enter the town and find a parking lot surrounded by hotels and houses in general, none of them with lights but we were lucky to find a parking space in the middle of a lot of cars and so Paty parked and in a one-two-three movement turned off the engine, the lights and we both slid down almost to the floor of the car, not to be seen. We were quite scared, we did not know what to expect but had to assume nothing good would happen so we were almost holding our breath. Saw the shadow car circling the parking several times, looking for us but when their search was unsuccessful, finally left.
We spent the rest of the night in the car, sitting or crouching afraid to even open the doors, lest the little light would signal our presence and of course dinner – forget it and use of toilet even more. Fortunately it was summer so sunrise was relatively early and once the first light of day is there, all looks better, even if… Still a bit apprehensive about our potential pursuers, we had to go. When you have to go you have to go so we drove towards the entrance to the National Park and surprisingly or not, a few meters after the parking place where we had spent the night there was this big hotel, open 24/24 and looked clean, modern and SAFE! Bit late for safety but finally it was good to know we had been very close to making it.
Our courage received a heavenly reward as we had one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen in my life. The colours of the stone, the reflections of the sun and maybe the fact that it was another day and all was ok contributed to make it a fantastic beginning. It was so early that although the barriers were already open, there was no guard at the entrance to collect entry fees, so in we go and first things first, drove to the top where the facilities were located, and were needed in a sort of emergency plan. But after that and at leisure in silence and tranquillity we drove and walked around the Park, enjoying every minute of it, thanking our good star not only for the trip the previous night but also for the superb morning.
Having had a joyful sunrise and all, we started to feel a bit hungry so we returned to the entrance to the nice and clean hotel we had seen in the morning and missed the night before and had a splendid breakfast with all the trimmings and got ready to continue our trip of the Grand Circle. The whole experience, canyons, landscapes, views and all make of this one of my favourite trips and I only hope the different canyons will be preserved for generations to come.
Mementos of my life 