Places we never want to leave

"I wish I were in Chesler Park" is the statement I currently have under my name on IM. A couple of friends have asked me about this, and Heidi took the challenge to come right back: "I wish I were in Canada... Alberta." She followed with:

"Oh, I always wish I was in Canada. And when I'm there, I never want to leave. The grass IS greener there. It always has been, always will be. Have you ever been to a place that it hurts you every time you have to leave? I mean, really... you want to cry and you feel like part of you has been torn away every time you have to drive away?"

Yes! This is what it is like for me when I have left Devil's Garden after sleeping there a couple nights. This is the feeling I immediately had when I visited Chesler Park for the first time two years ago. This is how my favorite wilderness spots and hikes become my favorite spots and hikes.

And sometimes they are good spots because they come to you at the time in your life when you need them. Two years ago, I went down by Hanksville to Little Wildhorse and Bell's Canyon, with a stop off at Goblin Valley. It was just me, Kevin, and our friend Mike, but it was a President's Day that was desperately needed (I would be defending my graduate thesis a couple of months down the road). We drove our crappy '89 Dodge sedan from Provo through all those miles and then wet dirt roads. It was totally worth it. We got mildly lost and went through Bell's Canyon first, which was a fun twist. The hike was pretty much deserted. Then we went to Goblin Valley, where the playground that existed there was as fun to me as Devil's Garden when I was a kid. Solitude. Brisk air. Red rocks. It was amazing.