Utah: Escalante
Damn it’s hot out here. I could’ve sworn I just saw a glimmering pool of deep blue water surrounded by beautiful women holding ice-cold beer off to the west. Most likely a mirage, though I still entertain the idea as a glimmer of hope. For the time I forget where we are, what day it is, where this wash is even leading us; it seems irrelevant at this point. We stopped seeing footprints miles ago. Yet for some reason, this forsaken canyon beckons us further.
Soon you can smell it, you can even feel it. The sweet scent of water, trees and dirt brings us back to life. We remove our hats, take off our sunglasses and relish in the shade. Our pace quickens as the sand beneath us begins to dampen. A small stream forms, paving a walkway of water through the walls of reeds, a second canyon like I have never seen. The further we go, the deeper it gets. More like a dream than anything else, an unlikely trip through paradise. This desert, in all her glory, never ceases to amaze me.