Lost in Paradise

Despite the fact that I had a GPS receiver mounted on my dashboard (and a whole pile of maps in the glove box) I got completely and gloriously lost several times on my way from the Goat Ranch to Mesquite, Nevada yesterday. It wound up being an almost 700 mile drive.

Here are some pictures I took of the Colorado River around the Vermillion Cliffs. The tiny black blur perched at the cliff's edge in the lower photo is a California Condor hanging out in the shade of the bridge. 60 Condors have been successfully introduced to the area around these cliffs. I know that the picture sucks, but I'd never seen one in the wild before and I'm totally stoked that I got a look at one of the largest soaring birds in the world.

The best part of the drive was when I had to back track 100 miles roundtrip due to a wrong turn, and wound up driving through Bryce Canyon National Park to get back on course. I’d never been to Bryce and had no idea of the huge scale of the place.

After almost 14 hours on the road I arrived at my destination, the Virgin River Casino and Resort. The Vigin River is a mere trickle in the stinking desert, and the resort that bears it's name is equally unimpressive. Known for it's penny slots and massive buffets, it's not the kinda place I would normally choose except for the fact that they offer a discounted room rate for skydivers. After I showered and took a short walk in the adjacent foothills, I sat at the bar and drank some Jim Beam and watched the slot jockeys at play.