![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/IMG_2194.jpg?resize=480%2C360&ssl=1\" "\\"IMG_2194\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Day 1: Silver City to Bluff<\/p>\n
Highlights: Rainbows all the way!<\/p>\n
The goal of this trip was backcountry hiking and camping in southeast Utah, and the Utah border is a long day’s drive from home, so my goal today was to reach Bluff, the first town across the border, and spend the night in the cheapest lodging I could find.<\/p>\n
Beyond this first night, I had no plans, no destinations, and no schedule. I didn’t even know when I was coming back; I would come back when I felt like it. Or maybe not…<\/p>\n
Heading north on US 191 through Sanders, AZ in late afternoon, I met a line of school buses pulling out of the school lot. I fell behind a bus full of kids. Together, we drove north through the high, rolling sagebrush and juniper hills of the Navajo Reservation. It had been raining on and off all day, and far ahead of us a partial rainbow arched up into low grey clouds. In the middle of nowhere, the bus flashed its lights and slowed to a stop. Out hopped two tiny Navajo girls wearing tiny backpacks. They didn’t look like they could be older than 4. No road, trail or house in sight. They just headed off together through the sagebrush and juniper and the bus started up again.<\/p>\n
![\"IMG_2184\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/IMG_2184.jpg?ssl=1\" "\\"IMG_2184\\"")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div>