The road is for lovers
Our wedding has come and gone, and the only way I can think to describe it is with the word “magical” and a single sigh. At the Colorado mountain lodge where we were married, there was more snow than I’d ever seen before in my life. Even the heavy-laden evergreen trees seemed sacred. I’ll write more about the wedding once my thoughts are more collected and I have a few more photos to share. But for now, I’m permanently living in the mountains now with my husband (!) and our weird dog, Indigo (!). Our house is on the mesa about fifteen minutes south of town, and in the morning when I take Indie out, the sky is impossibly big. Living within view of snow-capped peaks has immediately made me feel more grounded, as has the hard-packed dirt of the county road, and the close proximity to sunrises and sunsets. I can stand in the kitchen and watch a quivering bunny hop along the crust of once-deep snow, or lock eyes with a buck across the yard, his antlers blending in with bare branches. Being married—and not having to ever say goodbye for more than a few hours—is both a relief and a solace, and I'm more than happy to swap wedding planning with boring but somehow exhilarating things like tidying up.
The day after our wedding, we started slowly making our way west from Colorado until the stormy Pacific prevented us from going further, then looped back around east via Nevada and Utah. Road trips may not be the conventional honeymoon, but when you're a couple who's happiest on the road and the desert beckons from only a few, short hours away, this trip was the ideal, quirky solution to our honeymoon dilemmas. Even with weather that was horrific at times and much colder than expected (thanks California), itineraries that didn’t go quite according to schedule, and creepy campground neighbors I was afraid might kill us in our sleep (think six small white dogs perched on a picnic table in the dark...), I was overwhelmingly grateful and relieved to navigate it all with my best friend (and new husband!). I can't wait to take a million more trips with him.
Here's a small glimpse in digital images... *
* I made mostly film photographs on the trip, but am waiting for my scans, so stay tuned!
Our first morning spent at the Grand Canyon
Insane morning scenes after a rainy night camping in Joshua Tree National Park
The tram in Palm Springs, CA
Luxurious, sun-drenched morning in Palm Springs
The descent into Death Valley National Park
The turnoff to Badwater Basin, elevation 282 feet below sea level (Jacob likes to joke it was the lowest point in our marriage so far)
The salt flats of Badwater Basin
Sunset at the sand dunes
Snow in Zion National Park
Insane icicles in Zion
A semi-frozen waterfall in Zion
The Watchman at sunset
Monument Valley from Forrest Gump Point
