Travel Photography > Great Basin > Escalante, Utah

Leo parts, grinning and stumbling. I drive ten miles, and then down to the view of Point Imperial, watching the sunset over Mount Hayden. A young lady walks up. "Berkeley. I am getting my masters in Geography."

I quoted an obscure quote, explaining that for the traveler, the map is everything. About how a thousand pages of words can't do what a map can do in one.

"Paul Theroux," she said, "One of my favorites."
Stunned, I said, "If you have a map, you don't need an itinerary."

And then the sun set, first over the Vermilion Cliffs, Marble Canyon, and Kaibab. Then the darkness swallowed Mount Hayden, the layers of the sandwich, the tributaries of the Colorado River, the South Rim, Flagstaff, Arizona.

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