We collected the second car, a little Plymouth Neon. Not quite up to par with the previous Buick, but within budget. And so, for the third time, we saw the stretch of road heading north out of Vegas towards Utah.

Utah: pop (1995e) 1 957 000; area 219 880 sq km/84 899 sq mi. State in W USA, divided into 29 counties; the ‘Beehive State’; first white exploration by the Spanish, 1540; acquired by the USA through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848; arrival of the Mormons, 1847; Utah Territory organized, 1850; several petitions for statehood denied because of the Mormons’ practice of polygamy; antagonism between Mormon Church and Federal law over this issue led to the ‘Utah War’, 1857-8; joined the Union as the 45th state, 1896; capital, Salt Lake City; other chief cities, Provo and Ogden; rivers include the Colorado and Green; contains the Great Salt Lake in the NW, the largest salt-water lake in the country (2590 sq km/1000 sq mi); L Utah is a freshwater lake S of Great Salt Lake; the Wasatch Range, part of the Rocky Mts, runs N-S through the state; the Uinta Mts in the NE; highest point, Kings Peak (4123 m/13 527 ft); mountainous and sparsely inhabited E region dissected by deep canyons; major cities (containing four-fifths of the population) lie along W foothills of the Wasatch Range; the Great Basin further W; the arid Great Salt Lake Desert in the NW; cattle, sheep, poultry, hay, wheat, barley, sugar-beet; copper, petroleum, coal; aerospace research, machinery, transportation equipment, electronic components, fabricated metals, processed foods; tourism (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Zion National Park).

Day 7: From Vegas, Nevada, to Richfield, Utah

Heading back out of Vegas having swapped the rental cars, we soon found ourselves cutting through deep, deep gorges. I4294 wanted to take a picture of every rock and mountain we saw. With every turn, the views became more breathtaking than before. We met a tourist while gasping in awe at an amazing view. If you’re looking at the picture and would like some idea of scale, you see those tiny dots on the road? Those are 60 foot long trucks. Until you are actually standing there, you will never have any idea of the scale of things. This scenery went on until dusk, when we chanced upon Richfield, Utah. A typical Mormon style town, the road was so wide, it took a good 5 minutes to walk across! Everything happened on the main street through town, which is where we found our room for the night - a $30 motel in the “rough” area of town. By rough, in this case, I mean that the police had pulled someone over for speeding. People were just going about being their good God-fearing selves, wearing dungarees, and having a high percentage of illiteracy.

Day 8: Sand to snow: Sandstone Arches and a stay at Glenwood Springs

Our intention was to rise early, but this went by the wayside. Instead, we hung out in a launderette and ate muffins and drank coffee while our dirty clothes went round and round and round on their magical journey toward being clean clothes. Although when I say “hung out”, perhaps I mean “tumble-dried”. Continuing on, we came across Kolab Canyons National Park. Fortunately, we decided not to spend our $10 there, and instead later came across the spectacular ‘Arches National Park‘. If you go here, go for the whole day. And not in the middle of summer. When we went, it was pleasantly mid-80’s, but in the height of summer, it tops 100 degrees. There are lots of walks to be had, and this is where the best sights are to be seen. The geological makeup is mainly sandstone, and as millions of years of wind blow through them, spectacular formations are carved out. In fact,this leads me nicely to a pun; it really is a spectacle to behold! Apparently, this park has the greatest collection of sandstone arches in the world. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, we were about to stumble upon the most famous arch of all, and if you think I mean the McDonalds arch, you should probably put that burger down and get out more. This was called Delicate Arch.Again, the picture doesn’t do justice to its size. The walk to it is worth it alone. A mile and a half each way of upaved trail, across huge flat rocks with lizards darting about and some squirell-like things popping up out of their burrows. Although a mile and a half is mot much, it ensured that the trail was peaceful and trekked by only those who wanted to be there. The sad fact is that, if it involves walking, the Americans won’t do it. Even sadder is that many are so fat, they couldn’t if they wanted to. Meaning they missed out being part of a group of the privileged few. It’s a very special place. People just sit and stare. You can’t help but do anything else. It’s not a “oooh, there’s another rock, lets go now” moment. There are no signs of civilization here. No indication of what time in earth’s history you find yourself. Just the quiet. As it says in the park leaflet; “Have you ever been to a place so quiet that you can hear the blood in your veins?” And you can. We stayed a while, then made our way back to the car and drove to the next sight. And the next. This is why we wished we had the whole day.
As the temperature fell rapidly, we stopped and - along with many other more professional looking photographers - took a picture of the sunset. That’s all there is to be said about it really. Pictures can say a thousand words, but the only way to feel it is to be there.We left the park at about 7:30, and as we drove in the dark our landscape changed around us from hot arid desert, and by the time we had crossed into Colorado and Glenwood Springs we were seeing warning signs of snow on the road ahead. At 11:30 we stopped and found ourselves some excellent accommodation, wandered out for a takeaway, brought it back, ate, and slept until 7am.

Day 9: Arrival in Denver

Denver: 39°44N 104°59W, pop (1995e) 553 000. State capital in Denver Co, NC Colorado, USA; altitude 1609 m/5280 ft; largest city in the state and a port on the S Platte R; the gold-mining settlement of Auraria was united with two other villages to form Denver, 1860; airport; railway; university (1864); processing, shipping, and distributing centre for a large agricultural area; stockyards and meat packing plants; electronic and aerospace equipment, rubber goods, luggage; tourism (several national parks in the area); professional teams, Nuggets (basketball), Broncos (football), Colorado Rockies (baseball); Fornery Transport Museum, art museum, US Mint; National Stock Show (Jan).

We said an early goodbye to Glenwood Springs, and I for one decided that this would be one place I would certainly return to again. The whole area has such a descriptive nomenclature; Rifle, Steamboat, Leadville, Silvertone, Golden. And it’s all as quaint and costly as it sounds. We’d timed our stay just about right if you ask me. We were arriving just a little to late for the ski resorts to be expensive, and a little too early for the ’sun’ resorts to be too costly. Had we arrived in Glenwood Springs 3 weeks earlier, or California four weeks later, our holiday would have cost near double what it did for accommodation. Oh, and if you’d like a landmark as to where Glenwood Springs is, it’s near Aspen. Heard of it now?! We drove through a pass that had been blocked by snow the previous night, and the view is about all you could want. That night we ate as much Chinese as we could for $2 each at the Cho Mein..better yet, we lived to tell the tale!

Tags: america,travelogue,usa
Categories: america, travelogue