Utah, hot and bothered

A long driving day, with some old bones to keep me interested halfway there.

Dinosaur National Monument

Wide expanses with surrounding mountains. They have names but you have to squint to see them on a map. The hills are so tall they make these huge desert spaces seem small. That’s not thoughThese expanses, fully dwarfed by the hills behind them, they’re very tall. And they look like some sawtooth because it looks like they have holes in them. I don’t know if there’s really holes or not, but it’s—it’s very impressive.

I stopped at the visitor center, which led me to the other visitor center, where you can take a shuttle to the visitor center. Sorry, not quarry but shuttle. I talked to a person, a real-life person. It was a guy on a motorcycle and he was traveling across the country. I don’t remember why. And he had a veteran card, too. We talked about that, and yeah, it was very social. Are those Sawtooth Mountains?

Sound of Silence Trail

Sound of Silence trail. All sorts of warnings. Set a timer for 15 minutes to turn back. It’s not silent because there’s wind. It’s like Orfield quiet here. Except for the wind and the occasional, possibly jet plane, fighter, whatever. It’s pretty. I saw a little lizard running across the path. No rattlesnakes. All of the snakes that I was very assuredly seeing tend to be wood roots. Not as exciting, but probably safer.

Sound of Silence has cooked me enough that I don’t know that I’m going to be getting out of the car again. Unless, of course, there’s something more interesting. Blah blah. See, I always figure with the convertible, you’re exposed to the sun, but if you’re always moving, the sun doesn’t have a chance to get you, and has to start all over again. So you shouldn’t get sunburned at all. Really, faulty logic.

Heading West

Let’s play smoke or sand. I was really hoping for smoke, and then I saw the sand twister over on my left. We’ll see how it goes. 95 is the highest temperature so far. Straight lines through… I mean, I don’t know how you couldn’t call it a desert. Uh, hot, super hot. Very windy. And the hills are interesting, but not notable. Lots of passing lanes. Lots of them.

Fred Hayes State Park of Starvation. Wind picked up in Utah. And I know that because I’m enjoying the anti-displacement aspect of my vehicle. But it’s okay, I managed. We’re on a bridge that crosses Starvation… Starvation Lake. Has anybody searched for His Whispering Eye anywhere?

The wind blows cooler here past the winery. A Lamborghini decided he was just over it, passed everybody in the oncoming lane. Just went over a hill or mountain or whatever. Elevation 6700 something. Yeah, these big curves that require strength and widening really are delightful. They have all these lakes and reservoirs and things like that, but there’s no life to them. No boats, no people, no docks, nothing. I miss navigable bodies of water.

Used the kickdown to pass a guy, and it got really scary, including the second time I hit it. Uh, I was going really fast and it’s a little twitchy, and did not feel comfortable. Desert warmed water does not taste good at all. Oh no, why is the car rocking? Oh, it’s the wind. 88 degrees and I’m trying to figure out how long it will take for the car to fill with cold air. It’s nice to see that Utah doesn’t know how to do a passing lane either. More likely they know what they’re talking about but they don’t. If you sat a five-year-old down and asked them to describe the space program, that doesn’t make it real.

Except for the cars, this cross over the mountain from that one city where the ice was, to Salt Lake City is quite nice. It’s been fun. Up and down and then left and right, all of that. And when I get to the hotel, let’s play how the **** do I turn this light on?

The Highway & The Salt Flats

Another car wash so I can see through the front window. And it moves around me, and it’s making noises.

Utah major highway. I love when lanes compress. A vehicle will be following another vehicle, usually a truck, for a very long time, and then all of a sudden throw on their turn signals and jam over to the next lane and then go past them. Almost like a “Okay, I’m tired of this. Screw this, I’m moving on.”

The mountains are all grassy, and it reminds me of Oahu. I’m headed to Ely via the Great Basin, but Ely in general. And I just went through one of the last towns, wasn’t that big. But as I got back on the road here, the sign showed that Ely was 150 miles away. So all I got to do is drive to Duluth. Next services 83 miles.

More bikers in tight pants just riding along the highway in the literal middle of a freaking desert. 80-some degrees out. Okay, the temperature is 85, but the sun makes it feel like it’s 100 and something. So part of my theory is that it’s the sun’s rays that affect us most in the desert, not the heat necessarily. But in my case specifically, is it that I’m riding in an open car for hours on end under that same sun that I’m having these reduced hallucinations? Two more groups of skinny pants bikers. I suppose it makes sense, it’s a very straight, flat road where people can pass each other safely and easily. Except for that whole under the desert sun part.

The desert really is beautiful. Not just in the ordinary definition of the term and how people describe it. But it’s that it is this unforgiving, harsh land that it would be hard to imagine trying to farm or even ranch. And maybe that’s the payback for it being so beautiful. I’m seeing some sand that looks like sand dunes so maybe those will be starting here. Or is it a quarry?

There is a huge white section to my left, so the south, and it looks like a salt flat. And those are cool and tasty. I took a taste of a salt flat once. Looking at the GPS display on the car, that whole white area looks like a blue lake. So I’m wondering if it’s a salt lake. Not the, but a. I see what looks like water over by the lake now.

Border crossing coming up here pretty soon. Entering Nevada. I am officially in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing but sagebrush and horizon in every single direction. It is both incredibly beautiful and slightly terrifying.