grass does not exist on the other side

Okay I suck. I got back to Seattle midday Sunday after driving non-stop from Arches National Park for a good part of the night. I realize it's Sunday. I've decided this writer's block is from my inability to describe how awesome and incredible my roadtrip was, so I'll just say this.

The best part of the trip may have been waking up Sunday morning, just hours away from home, to see evergreen trees, rushing, clear rivers, beautiful deep brown soil heavily littered with sinuously soft green, GREEN--did I mention green?--grass. None of that coarse, painful yellow-brown stuff they call grass in the SW, or dusty, red-dirt that gets caught in your nose, your ears, and eyelashes, even. Or those prickly angry little shrubs people who live down there like to call "trees".

Just kidding.

The southwest was amazing. I got to watch the sun set in the Grand Canyon, hike down into the canyon, and almost die of dehydration on the way back up (note to self: you can never have too much water). I saw unbelievable Navajo pueblos at Navajo National Monument--how they're still preserved to this day is a beautiful mystery. I was smitten with flirty National Monument, so easy to love, so hard to part with. And at Arches, I had the opportunity to stand beneath the shade of Delicate Arch and wonder at its beautiful majesty.

Do yourself a favor and go visit the SW if you ever get the chance (only after you've visited the NW, obviously). I know I'll be back soon. Interested in hiking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim? Let me know, I want to make a trip of it within the next year.