Last year Dad discussed having our next family reunion in October of 2023 to coincide with the “Ring of Fire” Annular Solar Eclipse. He was pretty excited when I made reservations in Bluff, Utah in November of 2022 and got the last six rooms at the Desert Rose Inn and Resort. All told there are only a couple of motels in Bluff and 11 months prior to the event, they were booked full.

Dad had some history as the original family eclipse chaser. I found the following brochure and a photo from the 1979 eclipse. I don’t remember a lot about it but I remember me and Ross and Dad (and maybe a couple neighbors) getting up at the crack of dawn and driving to Kelso? or thereabouts. From Dad’s photo, it was cloudy and there were a lot of vapor trails but he did get one photo as the eclipse was moving past totality.

As time marched on and we lost Dad, the interest and availability waned for the rest of the family to attend so I ended up keeping only one room at the hotel. Since Joel has become the official family eclipse photographer, we kept a close eye on the weather and our fingers crossed for no rain or clouds!

Unfortunately, as the eclipse got closer, the message out of the Bluff Mayor’s office was not too inviting!

“Mayor of small town in Utah to eclipse viewers: ‘Don’t try to come here’

Bluff is bracing for a blitz of stargazers and expects shortages of gas, food and cell service.

For those looking for a last-minute locale in southern Utah to watch Saturday’s “ring of fire” solar eclipse, the mayor of Bluff has a message: “Don’t try to come here.”

The small town of about 260 people expects an influx of 20,000 eclipse viewers this weekend, Mayor Ann Leppanen said. It sits in a pocket of Utah that’s directly within the annular eclipse’s path. It has almost no light pollution. The weather forecast calls for mostly clear skies Saturday, making for ideal viewing conditions.

But making the trek to Bluff, the mayor warned, isn’t “a wise idea.”

Not heeding the advice, we left a day early and had no traffic, no lines and no gas or food shortages anywhere – in fact, every restaurant that we visited was busy but thanked the patrons for stopping by. HMMM, methinks that the top brass are not in sync with the rest of the town!

The morning of the eclipse, we drove about 20 miles west to the Valley of the Gods. In the 120 mile swath of totality, the location that Joel chose was less than a mile from the dead center … thus the perfect “Ring of Fire”