Bridges. Hanksville. Showers.

2:45 a.m. no. seriously. where is the shovel.

packed camp. back into Natural Bridges. nice hike down into the valley. lots of switchbacks, some wood ladders on the cliff faces, random railings bolted into the rock, where there weren't enough hand-holds - and where it was too steep to put in stairs.

I Hiked up through one of the natural bridges. took almost an hour. turns out that when you are hanging with one set of fingertips, and trying to put your foot where your other set of fingertips just was - you take the time to make sure you're really ready, before making the next move.

stopped when I couldn't really see the group any more. and when they shouted to me to stop. couple good pictures that we call "where's Eli" ... if only i had been wearing a striped shirt. Oh yeah ... and when that huge slab of rock slid out from under me near the top ledge. that was fun. did you know that the rangers rescue hundreds and hundred of people from the top of cliff faces and arches every year, because it's exponentially harder to climb back down crumbly sandstone than it is to power up it.

In an attempt to hit as many Utah N.P. systems as possible - stopped through Capitol Reef. Not in Salt Lake City. and no water. not even a ring of coral. sooo .... the name? apparently it's a new park.

Hanksville! woot! cool name! 1 operable gas station, and two places to eat food ... note that I don't say restaurants. population ... a dozen? Two kids that really should have been in school. for more reasons than that it was a weekday. let's just say huge red sports coat, DARE (to bike naked) t-shirt, ripped jeans, baseball cap backwards, bleached blonde crew cut, huge workboots, coherent speech?, adding?, 15 yr old female.

A lot more driving. because that's what the rest of Utah is - that they haven't made into a national park - highway.

found a little RV park in the middle of the desert. with a swimming pool. and a huge common lawn. free showers. flush toilets. flat sites. water spigots. and an older couple who run the shop and register who could not possibly have taken longer to ring us up. seriously. over half an hour to purchase - not to sign up for, decide on, allocate to - a campsite, just to ring it up.

free showers ... it's like a beacon of hope in the darkness.