Road Trip 2013 - Utah

Road Trip 2013 has been in the planning stages for months, and Saturday we launched with a flight from Valdosta to Atlanta and then to the glittering lights of Las Vegas, landing just before midnight local time.  By the time we made our way to the rental car building after passing row on row of slots in the airport, got the little red Dodge crossover, and found the hotel, we were more than ready to fall into bed.   This morning the bright desert light woke us and we put the plan into motion.

Our first stop was Wal-Mart for those things which we could not take on the plane:  water, ice chest, ice, extra pillows, and a sun hat.  We were intrigued by the upscale store, quite desert and chic -- very Vegas --in design.  We then left the congestion of the city for the barren desert and hills, mesas, and buttes and little towns like Mesquite, Nevada (a well watered upscale development complete with golf course)  heading into Utah at St. George where we angled over to Arizona.  On the trip we slipped back and forth between the two states, on and off reservations, and finally ended at Page Arizona to stage our Monday activities.

The route today is almost the same we took 44 years ago when we passed through much of this area on our road trip to the west coast headed to Japan with two striking differences:  we had no interstate highways then and we were headed toward Vegas instead of away from it. We passed through
scenery which varied from stark to strikingly beautiful with many gradations of color on the soaring rock formations.  As we approached Page, we saw formations which varied from grey (almost white) shale to red rock.  We discovered when we stopped at a National Park overlook that many of the rocks contain fossilized oysters and other sea creatures from eons ago. Coal deposits lie under the earth from when the vegetation was lush.  This is also the area where dinosaur relics have been discovered.

We stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam, second highest in the US, which is actually the reason Page exists.  Page began as a strictly company town built for workers constructing and later working at the dam and then became an independent municipality.

We had researched where to eat in Page, a town of six thousand;  unfortunately, our first two choices were closed on Sunday.  We finally chose the Dam Grill and Bar which was adequately average although the Dam's décor was interesting, giving the impression that we were actually eating at the base of the massive structure.

Today, the primary impression we had was the contrast between the timeless soaring beauty of the natural formations and the rather tawdry relatively new efforts of mankind in the developments.  We saw the ubiquitous chain stores and restaurants in every small town.  We hope later in the trip to enjoy some little individualized places that local people frequent.  We also rediscovered the searing heat and hot wind of the area in summer.  Yes, the standard comment is "but it's a dry heat."  Doesn't matter: it's hot!  We were glad that the rental car had AC, not a feature of my deep green 1967 Mustang. 

Tonight we catch up on sleep and anticipate our trip tomorrow up into Utah to Monument Valley which is located entirely on a Navaho Reservation.