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I formulate a rough structure for where I am going: somehow to complete the so-called Grand Staircase - a region in Utah and Arizona, by car, by foot and by water, in no particular order. This is a series of steps that begin in the north at nine thousand feet, and drop slowly, in a collection of vast twisting drainages that eventually become the Grand Canyon.

Each step of the Staircase is suitably different, getting weirder on the way south. Kind of like Dante's Inferno - each step gets hotter, until the lowest elevations, where the heat bakes above a cold, gray canyon bottom, and the flies are unbearable.

The first step, the high plains of Bryce Canyon ('Helluva place to lose a cow,' noted Ebenezer Bryce), is filled with German tourists, marching in long single columns. Some are curious about my camera, sniffing at it, and putting their eye against the lens. This is Dante's Limbo, I thought, because I like German tourists.

 
 

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ArrowCalf Creek, Escalante NM, Utah



 
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©2010 Erik Gauger.
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