The Trip!!

After almost 100 days of relentless work & solitude, I geared up myself for another trip.This trip was special right from the day of its conception. More than the joy of visiting some spectacularly scenic places, I was enthusiastic to meet new people, making new friends….. I was supposed to join my friend and her friends from Kansas City.Last 3 days of work before the trip was hard. I felt like procrastinating everything to the day after I come back. Finally on a Wednesday afternoon, I started my journey.

Burbank airport was interestingly small and friendly.Our Indian ascent is hard to hide. So a young guy at Delta airline counter asked me if I was a “North” Indian. After I politely refused, he became confident that I was a “South” Indian. He gladly introduced himself as an Indian-American whose roots could be traced to Kerala. When I again said “No”, then he apologized to have mistaken me as an “Indian”. I smiled and made him remember that there is also “East” and “West” to a place which has north & south.

I took my flight to Salt Lake City. I had to wait there for an hour or more before the rest of the gang came from Kansas. The wait was too hard as I was excited yet skeptical about meeting new people. After an impatient wait for 2 hours during which I went to all bookstores around, went to restroom more than thrice and reading more than 70 pages of the novel “The Kite Runner”, rest of the gang arrived.We were supposed to start immediately for Yellowstone National Park which was about four and half hours drive from Salt Lake city. But the airlines misplaced some of the baggage and we were stuck in the airport trying to sort out things.After this initial confusion, we started one of our many long drives which we made during this holiday.

Being a total stranger to almost all, I observed a lot and spoke only when necessary.The car zoomed and FM blared. With occasional conversation and sandwiches in the stomach from subway, the crowd in the car was invariably quiet. Gladly, the ice broke when we were out of the radius of FM stations and there were no more songs to be played.Somebody started singing randomly and somebody else followed. Within minutes everyone was singing or contributing lyrics etc. After non stop singing, laughing for 4 hours and one ticket for speeding (Courtesy: Idaho cops), we reached Yellowstone. For people living in southern California, any place having temperature lower then 65 is an awfully cold place. It was a cold starry night when we checked in “Three Bear” Lodge.The place was cozy and neat. Without wasting a minute, we slept to wake up under the serene skies of Yellowstone.

We started exploring Yellowstone after a brunch at the lodge.
The first and perhaps will be the everlasting thing in my memory will be the colors that I saw in Yellowstone. The azure color of the sky with floating puffs of mist, the different shades of green spreading across the terrain, the sparkling crystal clear water which came gushing out of streams mesmerized me. Every nook and corner of the woods looked a picture perfect. Everybody brandished their cameras and started taking photographs.

The “Faithful” geyser spurted out timely as if it was manually timed like our artificial fountains. The beauty of it was no less than the man made dancing fountain of Bellagio at Vegas. Some geysers and mud pots oozed out the pungent smelling sulphur gas and some spitted liquid which looked like molten lava. The entire pallet of natural colors was breathtaking. The exploding geysers kind of belied the innocence of the ambience and subtly reminded of nature’s might.
Everybody at my workplace had told me about the grizzly bear and asked me to take pictures of the wildlife. Well only some bison, deer and ducks obliged us and allowed us to see them. Till the very day I was supposed to leave Yellowstone, I was hopeful to see atleast one grizzly bear. The bison were the friendliest and posed in front of the numerous cameras of over enthusiastic travelers. Some of my friends commented it looks like our buffalos just with some fur. Some ridiculed others who were taking snaps of bison because they said in India you open your door and you are placed in zoo. Bison like creatures will be harmoniously roaming on the roads with cars, cycles, rickshaws etc.The trails were beautiful and you felt like missing none.

Some taking you to geysers, some around the lake showing craters ….Everything seemed so inviting. After walking for around 10 miles and exhausting all our snacks and water, we realized that sun was saying a bye and moon saying a “Hi”.

The next day was an 8 hour drive to Arches National Park after crossing Grand Teton National Park. The majestic mountains of Teton were clothed in different shades of blue.Mountains of different altitudes were harmoniously aligned. I was comfortably seated in the car enjoying the scenery, the revelry with co-passengers and my book.

Moab was again a very interesting place. It was dry, hot but with awe inspiring formations of rock. It was a large territory of rocks. All of us had let our imagination go wild and were trying to picture the rocks like a boy with glasses on, as a modern art painting, a chariot and what not. But it was very hard to comprehend how could the air and water alone could create such huge flawless pieces of art.

The trails were slowly becoming difficult and tiring because of the heat.
But the different rock formations like the balancing rock, the gossiping rocks , the eye, numerous arches were simply hard to miss.

Inspite of the scorching sun, we decided to take the most difficult trail called the “Double O Arch” which was around 9 miles long. The trail was truly difficult because of its uneven topography. It was already evening and I had exhausted myself. So I and my friends after going half way decided not to go ahead and wait for two other guys who decided to go.

The trail was such that after a certain point, you could not see where is it going or far is it from the Double O arch point. It suddenly became cloudy and dark. Slowly the number of people who were coming decreased. We slowly started getting worried. Suddenly, two of my friends decided to go and find the rest. Within minutes, no body was visible. With dark clouds looming the sky and no cellular network, I slowly started getting worried. We were just 2 people standing on the bottom of the rock waiting for our friends to return.After a good wait, I realized that it was too late and the weather is becoming inclement.Impulsively, I decided to trek alone and find rest of the people. With sand under my shoes and slippery rock I had reached quite a distance. I was myself not sure how and where exactly I am going. I slipped twice but balanced myself. Suddenly, I heard some voices from down who requested me not to go alone and come back. I saw an old couple of Chinese origin warning me not to move ahead as it had started raining.I told them the reason why I was going up. In the meantime, I asked whoever was returning from the hike if they had seen my friends. Some said yes and some refused. I was really terrified. How strange is the fact that the same terrain that looked so lovely now was looking scary? The couple assured me to take me to the entrance and call the rangers. The walk to the entrance was a good 20 minutes long and by the time I reached there, it had stopped raining. I prayed hard and kept a time frame of another 20 minutes after which I am going to take help from the locals to call the rangers. Every second seemed like an hour and finally when I was going to ask for help, I saw my friends coming. The feeling was inexplicable. I had such a motley mix of emotions that I was numb for an hour or more. It was indeed one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life. After a hearty dinner, we again started our journey to Bryce canyon.

Bryce was equally ravishing with temple and castle like formations of rock. It was at a higher elevation of 8,600 feet or more. It was slightly cold but beautiful. Some part of the Canyon looked like the remnants of ancient monuments having a story, history of its own. The uniform and gradual shades of orange, white, brown looked so unreal as if someone has intentionally painted it. After 4 days of constantly traveling and hiking, we were no more ready for taking another trail but still we took two trails.






The day ended and we headed to Salt Lake City again to board our flights the next day. It was Labor day and every billboard showed up interesting deals and offers. We shopped a lot in an outlet mall in Salt Lake City after having lunch in an Indo-Nepal cuisine restaurant.

We reached airport and it was the time to say a bye……a bye to the continuous drives, hikes, loud laughs, songs and most importantly friends. People whom I didn’t know at all had became a part of my lives..After exchanging phone numbers and promises of exchanging pictures, I said adieu to all.

Life is strange but beautiful…Journeys like these definitely changes your perception and rejuvenates your senses. After undergoing through a gamut of emotions during and after this trip, I am back alive and kicking like never before.