Capitol Reef National Park, UT.
The Sweetest Goodbye
After 5 weeks and 2 days, my road trip has officially come to an end. And what a trip it was!
I was able to visit every location I intended (and more) except for one—Great Basin National Park kept evading me.
If you recall, I skipped Great Basin at the beginning of the trip due to unpleasant weather, and planned to circle back on my way home. Alas, the day before my return, another storm passed through, leaving much of the park closed due to snow.
So, instead of spending my last night at Great Basin, like I had planned, I decided to drive a few more hours to camp at the same hot springs where I camped the first night of my trip. Something about ending where I started felt right.
After arriving at the hot springs, I was lounging in my camp chair and admiring the beautiful pink clouds of sunset.
Slowly, the color in the clouds faded to gray, at which point I thanked them for their beauty and said a final goodbye, knowing that was my last sunset of the trip.
A few minutes later, as I was cooking my meal, I looked up to see those same gray clouds turning pink again. They turned just as bright and beautiful as they had the first time. A second sunset!
It brought tears to my eyes.
Although this double sunset was unexpected, I wasn’t really surprised. Because the entire trip I sensed something with me; protecting me, guiding me, watching my back. Whatever you choose to call it—the universe, the world, the cosmos, nature, good luck or God—I felt it there with me.
And this double sunset felt like one final gift from that thing—the sweetest goodbye—after an incredible adventure together.
"I have a naive trust in the universe – that at some level it all makes sense, and we can get glimpses of that sense if we try." -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
