Utah’s National Park Campground Is Deserted

CANYONLANDS, UTAH – For 100 million years, water, wind, and ice have carved elaborate gorges, canyons, monuments, and arches into this burnt red, sandstone desert…

We’ve made our way into the Colorado River Valley. It looks like a Martian landscape.

As Edward Abbey, the famous conservationist and best-selling author, once wrote…

Canyonlands is “the most weird, wonderful, magical place on Earth – there is nothing else like it anywhere.”

Leaving the Earthship Bunker

Greetings from Canyonlands!

We bid farewell to our latest hosts and their off-the-grid “Earthship” bunker this morning. We drove west, leaving Colorado and entering Utah.

The landscape has changed again. We’ve left the forested mountains of Colorado, and we’re now in the red sandstone tablelands and canyons of Utah.

Here we are on the road earlier…

I’m writing to you from our camp inside Canyonlands National Park. The campground is empty, which surprised us.

This is peak tourist season. We expected a popular campground like the one inside Canyonlands National Park to be full.

Yet we’re the only ones here.

Here’s our camp for tonight…

Tomorrow, we pack up camp and head further north along the Colorado River Valley. We’ll set up camp at a new spot up there… wherever we can…

– Tom Dyson

P.S. We’re 50 miles away from the nearest town, and there’s no light pollution out here. The stars are incredible – the best I’ve ever seen. We could see the stars from our beds!

We just lay in our beds and looked up at the meteors crossing the heavens with their long, bright tails. We saw one every few minutes. It was a magical moment, shared with my family, that I’ll never forget.

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On readers’ minds today: couch surfing in the time of COVID-19… the Dysons’ travels in a secondhand pop-up camper… and rising real estate prices…

Reader comment: Thank you for sharing your life and insights – very informative and entertaining. With all your “heart surfing” what has been your experience with co-mingling with your hosts during the COVID world? Very curious to know your thoughts, as well as how your guests view the concerns of many regarding limiting social interactions, etc.

Tom’s response: The people who invite us tend not to be zealous mask wearers. But you’d expect that. We’ve spent time with many healthcare workers on our journey across America during coronavirus, including a couple of physicians, and they all said the health dangers had been exaggerated.

Reader comment: Hello, I sincerely admire you and your family for the guts to get out of the rat race. However, I do have one question: Why do you travel so primitive (pop-up trailer)?

Since launching your newsletter, you could walk into any RV store and get yourself a Monaco coach. You could still travel all the back roads that you want but you would have warm water and a shower available, and even A/C when you enter some really hot areas of the country.

Tom’s response: We are very cheap and “savings” oriented. So I’d much rather buy a few more ounces of gold or some shipping stock than an expensive motor home. Besides, our pop-up tent cost $1,500 and we love it.

Reader comment: Hi Tom, You mentioned briefly the rise in home prices. You mention the possible “exchange of cash for assets,” and while I suppose that is possible, I don’t think that there are many Americans hoarding cash at the moment so as to make such an exchange.

What I don’t understand is this: With unemployment at or about 20%, and more and more people unable to pay their rents and/or mortgages, how is it that we have a dearth of housing, and thus a rise in pricing? I mean, with rents and mortgages unpaid, shouldn’t there be a rise in foreclosures, and a surplus of housing… and thus a lowering of prices?

I am hearing stories all over the place of adult children having to move back in with mom and dad due to having lost their jobs. Who is buying all of these now-vacant houses? I’ve gotten used to nothing making sense in the financial world (Tesla stock valuations? Really?), but the housing boom in the middle of a global pandemic and economic shutdown is weird.

Q2 numbers are the worst on record, yet someone is buying houses faster than the unemployed can lose them. It’s a head-scratcher for me. I’d love your opinion.

Tom’s response: I haven’t looked into it closely, but I have some friends who own a thousand rental properties in Texas. They’ll have an idea. Could it be money leaving the cities and bidding up properties in more rural areas?

Meanwhile, two readers express concern over the COVID-19 situation… and another reader suggests Tom create a travel guide from all of his experiences…

Reader comment: The Canada border opening will not happen. It is still closed, showing no signs of opening up. There have been more COVID deaths in the U.S in two weeks than all of Canada since the start. I agree, some Americans are open and friendly, but with record gun sales, a lot are not. We sold our Florida home.

My major issue with Americans is their total belief that they are the greatest, and this inane propaganda hits you all the time. When was America great? I must have missed that. Good luck on your journey. The children are getting an unbelievable education. Listen to Dr. Fauci and stay safe.

Reader comment: All of the places you mention in Southern Colorado elicit precious memories for me. Enjoy. I am very concerned that none of your pictures of family and friends show face masks, which makes me question your community awareness.

Reader comment: Tom, it just occurred to me after reading your semi-official announcement that you intend to write a book about “heart surfing”. Your readers are giving you a treasure trove of inside tips for seeing little-known (to outsiders) local sites. I have started re-reading past issues for the suggestions you receive from all corners of the continental U.S. and Canada.

If put together, this gold mine (couldn’t resist) of insider info would make a great small travel guide, a go-to guidebook for fellow RV/pop-up-tent travelers. My kids are nearly grown up so I’ve missed the opportunity to show them the beauty of flyover U.S. (they’ve grown up in Russia), like my father did for us kids. I feel your pain having to say goodbye to such warmth and human kindness, of which daily life provides us far too little.

Reader comment: According to my wife, Ridgway was where they shot True Grit with Glenn Campbell back in the late ’60s or early ’70s. Parts of Ridgway became Fort Smith, AR for the movie.

Finally, another reader gives suggestions for the Dyson family in Colorado… and one shares his own cancer story, after some difficult health news recently from Tom’s mother and father…

Reader comment: Hi from Grand Junction. Palisade local peaches are ripe and delicious. Corn is ripe. There are several farm stands off exit 42/Elberta Ave at I-70 in Palisade. Grand Mesa (national forest) is a huge, flat-top mountain very nearby. Grand Junction also has Colorado National Monument (canyons and red rocks). Love the Bonner team writings. Thank you.

Reader comment: Never miss one of your Postcards. Really, really interesting what you all are doing. Thanks for all your reports and investment advice.

Reader comment: Glad to hear your mom is better. Like your dad, I have battled cancer for 15 years, including prostate, basal cell carcinoma (ordinary skin C), and melanoma. I had to have plastic surgery in 2011 as the skin C ate my face and nose on one side, even though I had treated it using herbs. Nobody can tell now. The melanoma has been the most challenging. I have had it for five years and it has not grown, but not healed.

Hi to everyone, and kudos to Kate for keeping the family together despite the rough period.

Tom’s note: Thank you for sharing your concerns, suggestions, and stories with us. I read your letters aloud to my family every night, and they help keep us going. Please keep writing us at [email protected].