Road to Vegas

Wednesday morning, southwest Colorado, I'm at Durango Coffee Company mapping the day's route. There's a lot of desert highway between here and Vegas, about 600 miles, almost all of it non-interstate. Which means two-lane traffic and 55 miles per hour. Which means I have long day ahead. But with Monument Valley and Zion National Park along the way, there will be some unique photo ops, which I'm pretty stoked about. I charge up both cameras, grab an Americano for the road, and hightail it into Utah. 

Monument Valley

The landscape in lower Utah is flat and rugged and resembles the surface of the Moon, dusted in orange-red chalk. Not much life here. No wildlife, no trees, no powerlines... just me and the dusty road. Cue Where The Streets Have No Name, U2. 

Moving quickly South, toward Arizona, I begin to see plateaus peeking above the horizon.  Hidden only by the curve of the Earth, the formations grow taller as I approach. I can't help but accelerate: 60, 70, 80. Soon the view is too much to continue. I pull over and walk into the middle of the desolate highway. And there it is. Looks like a postcard. Click.

The first car to pass is a black Jeep Grand Cherokee, almost identical to the one that was supposed to make this trip. Click. I'm a little late on the shutter, but still, it's easy to imagine myself in that little car against that big beautiful world. I think I'll pin that one up somewhere. 

 

Zion National Park

Several hundred miles of uneventful Arizona desert later, I'm back in lower Utah, entering Zion. The $25 fee seems a bit steep, but it's really the only way through to Nevada. I pay with a $20 bill, two crumpled ones, nine quarters and some other loose change. So that's my financial situation.

Around the first bend, the scenery takes a turn for the dramatic. Suddenly I am descending into a deep canyon, hugging the curves of a too-narrow road. Cars weren't meant to go here, but thanks to some clever engineering and some arduous, indeed expensive human labor, here I am. And it's incredible.  $25 seems light, actually. 

(Note: In the interest of safety, I did not photograph the road which I describe above. My quick risk/reward calculation caused me to 10-2 it all the way to the bottom, where the following shots were taken. While I regret not being able to share with you and my future self, I'd say it's one of those 'gotta see for yourself to understand' things anyway. Like Monument Valley. Like Napoleon Dynamite).