Green River, Utah

After Colorado's enormous mountains towering over you, you don't expect the scenery to get any cooler, but I think Utah had the best "backdrop" of all the states. As the Rockie's fade away behind you, they are replaced by strange crooked mesa and small mountains in pink and beige. They are so distant that they don't seem so real. Like when I was twelve and saw the Grand Canyon, the other side of the canyon was so far away that I would've sworn it was a painting placed just outside my reach. Utah's terrain was just like that. Everything was so spread out. Looking at my pictures, I know they don't come close to doing it justice because you can't just look at it on your screen. You have to open the window of the car and feel it. You have to park the car at one of the many View Points and stand on the pale dry Earth. I did just that, turned the car off and hopped out. With a bit of hesitation, I stepped off the paved walkway and stood flat on the dirt. I almost got a chill because it is so different than stepping off the sidewalk in Astoria. Utah, except for its sprinkling of vegetation, makes you think you are on Mars. It's empty, it's dry, and it's so far from home. It's a desert and you don't dare drive your car off the highway for fear that you will immediately die of thirst, have the crows pick your corpse clean, and your skeleton just become part of the landscape.

I already knew this country was enormous as a whole. Kansas taught me that. But Utah was like an older wiser man who puts his hand on your shoulder, shakes his head and says, "no, Dan you still don't quite understand just how large this place is."

From Cross Country

From Cross Country

I stopped in Green River. It's a small town on the highway. It's basically one strip of of road that intersects with the interstate. There's a couple gas stations, a bunch of hotels, some restaurants. I didn't really explore. Tamarisk, looked like a nice restaurant. I sat alone at my table with a view of an enormous mesa right outside the city limits. The food was weak.

I asked the Front Desk at my hotel about what people do here at night. I figured I could find a bar nearby. Every town has some type of watering hole. Green River has one. The girl at the front desk advised me not to go there. On the topic of me being an outsider she said nobody would bother me, as long as I'm just passing through. If I were to move in permanently, however, she said then people might have a problem. Hmm.

I stayed inside the rest of the night. Traveling alone can be a bummer, but usually you can get out and entertain yourself. Being cooped up at the Holiday Inn Express all night is no fun.

I got up early in the morning. Ate in the hotel, planned my trip to the next state. The drive through the rest of Utah was, unsurprisingly, also beautiful. And seeing it as the Sun was just above the horizon made it even lovelier. The rock formations changed shapes and angles. There are beautiful hills and canyons to drive through. I started thinking about all the cool Wild West stories that may have been inspired by places like these. I also wondered how many spots out there have never had a human being walk over them. There were more mesas that were probably 1,000 feet high and they had vegetation on top of them. I hope Utah stays as desolate as it is now, because that's a major part of it's beauty.