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This weekend we travelled to southern Utah with our friends Meg and Jared. The <a href="http://www.vagabondbnb.com" target="_blank">Vagabond Inn</a> in Escalante was our home base for visiting <a href="http://www.nps.gov/brca/" target="_blank">Bryce Canyon</a>. On the way down, we took a detour through <a href="http://www.nps.gov/care/" target="_blank">Capitol Reef National Park</a>, where we saw mile after mile of gorgeous red rock and some amazing <a href="http://www.nps.gov/care/petpull.htm" target="_blank">petroglyphs</a>. 
On the way to Escalante, we passed through Dixie National Forest. I thought I'd read the sign wrong. But apparently people call southern Utah <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(Utah)" target="_blank">"Utah's Dixie."</a> It's certainly nothing like the Dixie I know.

This state is so amazing. We drove for over eight hours on Friday, and it seemed that every fifty miles or so the landscape changed completely. When we got near Capitol Reef, the highway was lined with red rock buttes&mdash;you might imagine the landscape of Mars looking like this. I remember a friend saying, when we were moving out here, that Utah looks like another planet. The northern part of the state, where we live, doesn't so much&mdash;it just looks like a really beautiful part of Earth. What we saw this weekend does indeed look like another planet, a magnificent, colorful, awe-inspiring piece of another world.

Guidebooks will tell you that winter is a great time to visit southern Utah's national parks, and this is true. What they don't tell you is that winter is the off season, and the small towns that provide services to tourists all but shut down between November and April. When we got to Escalante around 8:00 pm, everything was closed, even the gas stations&mdash;they had rolled up the streets of the town. This was a minor inconvenience. We had brought food to cook but needed a few additional ingredients to round out the meal. Meg made lasagna, and while she was missing a few key ingredients ("I forgot to bring my herbs!"), it tasted fine to me.

The sign outside the Vagabond Inn proclaims it a bed and breakfast. It is not. There are only beds, no breakfast, other than what you provide yourself. Morning coffee from Esca-Latte, the coffee shop located inside <a href="http://www.escalanteoutfitters.com" target="_bank">Escalante Outfitters</a>, was supposedly included, but like most everything else in town, Esca-Latte was closed for the season. That said, the Vagabond Inn is a very comfortable old house with a well-equipped kitchen, a TV and DVD player, and three bedrooms with five beds (three doubles and two twin beds). We enjoyed our stay there.

As for what we saw&mdash;a picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. 
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/01winterdesert.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Wintery desert along the way</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/02redrock.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Red rock</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/03redrockbutte.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Red rocke butte</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/04capitolreef.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Capitol Reef</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/05capitolreef.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Capitol Reef</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/06capitolreef.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">James on a rock at Capitol Reef</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/07capitolreef.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Capitol Reef</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/08petroglyphs.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Petroglyphs at Capitol Reef</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/09bryce.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Bryce Canyon</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/10bryce.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Bryce Canyon</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/11bryce.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Bryce Canyon</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/12bryce.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Bryce Canyon</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/13dixie.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Dixie National Forest</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/14dixie.jpg"><br/><p class="caption">Dixie National Forest</p></p><br/>