Just call me Thoreau

Last Tuesday I finished my finals. Then I headed for the hills. Well, really it was a desert. Back in December my mom showed me a magazine article about Natural Bridges. The article said it was one of the only places in Utah with no light pollution. Zero. Zilch. Nil. My mind started scheming. It also said there would be a meteor shower in April and Natural Bridges would be a good place to watch it. Sold! I grabbed my laptop and started doing research. When are finals, when is the best time to watch the show, where can I camp down there? Within an hour I had a rough plan: take my finals ASAP as possible, drive down there with a van-full of camping gear and friends, watch the meteors while sipping hot cocoa. Perfect.

So that is what I did. Due to lame professors who schedule finals on the last day possible my amigos had to come down a day later than me. So I went into the desert...alone. It would be my Walden. I was pumped. So I drove 5 hours listening to General Conference talks and a single MOTAB cd on repeat (great music selection, Dad). I got there late. Real late. After miraculously setting up the tent in the dark I sat in my camp chair beholding the stars. There were thousands of thousands. I sat there in awe taking it all in. It was breathtaking. Then I thought I heard something, got scared and went to bed.

The next day was less scary. No creepy noises. No coyotes waking me up in the middle of the night. Just me, my book, the nice German-Canadians in the next campsite over and the great outdoors. Paradise. There I was in the middle of the desert with nothing to do but think, meditate and discover. I lasted about 5 minutes before I pulled out my novel about zombies. A couple chapters later I decided to go check out the bridges, you know, see what this park was all about. I did a little hiking, took some photos... ate some fruit snacks, it was a dream.

After the scenic loop I drove 30 minutes to Blanding to get some lunch and kill more time until my amigos showed up. I found this unbelievable drive-inn burger spot. It was sublime. Tasty as. Then I thought about going back to the campsite and pondering my existence. I went to a dinosaur museum instead. It was well worth the $3.50.

If you ever find yourself in Blanding, Utah give this place a try. Tasty business.

In a nutshell, my Thoreau experience was marvelous. It didn't result in a book, but a blog post is kind of close right? I didn't have any profound realizations while I lone wolfed it, but I did relish the tranquility. As Bob would say, I took a vacation from my problems. I highly recommend it.

Me trying to look Thoreauian while pondering the essence of life.

If you're still wondering how the meteor shower went: We slept under the stars and saw some epic meteors. We planned to go to sleep and wake up at 4 AM (prime viewing time) and watch the good stuff. I woke up long enough to turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. The shooting stars we did see though were enough to make the trip worth it.