On a Lonely Desert Highway

“Oh great. I’m in the middle of nowhere and hit a road with a construction project,” I muttered to myself. What other reason would they have in reducing the speed nearly in half, from 65 MPH to 30?

I slowed down expecting to see an orange vested flagger with a stop sign up head. Only, another speed limit sign greeted me with information to reduce my speed to 15. Then 5. “What in the world is going on?” I wondered. Soon the pavement gave way to a dirt road. I still wasn’t going 5 until I rounded a corner and gained perspective of my location. My eyes popped out and a huge smile lit up my face as I yelled out loud from sheer excitement and adrenaline.

I looked down over the greater than 1,000 vertical feet separating me from an immense valley below. The vegetation's various greens, where I had abruptly stopped my car, had quickly turned into different shades of desert reds, browns, and tans down below. Giant mesas and slender pinnacles burst off the valley floor at different intervals, like waves slowly rolling into a seaside cliff. I realized I had been driving on a high plateau for miles and this was the end of the road. The only way down was this treacherous dirt road, slowly winding its way across a completely vertical cliffside.

No shoulder existed and there was barely enough room for a car to pass in the other direction. The only barrier preventing an errant driving from flying off the edge was a continual loose gravel bumper piled a foot high and ten inches wide. Each turn revealed a new scene and different vantage point. In my mind, I knew that many people had traveled down this road before, but it was my first time and I didn't even known it existed. It was all new and completely unexpected. I felt like an early Western explorer traveling unknown lands. My heart raced as I felt euphoric sensations and elation like my favorite football team had just caught a winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. Periodically yelling to no one at all, I kept my white knuckles wrapped around the steering wheel as I soaked in the visual sensory overload accompanied with the manageable but apparent danger.

I finally reached the bottom and the road became paved again. I stopped and got out of the car to see where I had just come from and wondered how they made that road in the first place. The plateau towered above the valley like an impregnable fortress that no enemy could ever conquer. I chuckled to myself as I climbed back into my car and continued forward but immediately saw another dirt road veering to the left. There were no signs or indications as to what it was. I impulsively swerved my car ninety degrees, kicking up a trail of dust as I drove towards the unknown. I was curious to see what lay ahead. The only marker indicated the road may be impassible when wet. I drove on.

The straight path soon curved around a dazzling display of geology. Every bend would reveal a new towering set of rock formations that had been hidden by the mesas directly in front of me. The road twisted and turned around a 17 mile trail I came to find out was appropriately called Valley of the Gods. I was completely spell bound and mesmerized by the colors of the desert sandstone and the colossal formations jutting out from the arid valley floor. On my right, arose what looked like a giant stone hand reaching out of the earth and stretching nearly two hundred feet towards the clouds. On my left, towering pinnacles changed shapes to elongated massive fins as I slowly drove past and their profiles were revealed. As much as I was enthralled with my current location and wanted to soak in every view, I was just as enticed to quickly proceed because of the hidden grandeur that lay around the next corner. Shadows began stretching across the valley floor and soon only one side of the rock formations reflected the rusted iron deposits that gave the rock its red color like the surface of Mars.

But the night was falling as the desert world began to settle down. I passed one or two cars crossing my path as the sun set in the beautiful West behind the looming plateau above everything. And to the East, as if it were right on cue from a clichéd Disney movie, a full moon broke through a band of clouds as lightening strikes lit up layer upon layer of rocky mesa in the dark distance. I stopped the car and got out again. The warm air filled my nostrils and gently blew across my face and body. All I could hear were the rustling leaves of a few cottonwood trees lining a dried up river bed. The scenery that smacked me into elation, now stirred feelings of solitude and calm. I never wanted this peaceful feeling to leave me. I decided to stay here for the night.

Seeing the lightening in the distance, but not yet hearing thunder, I thought about flash floods and a scene from Into The Wild crossed my mind. Not wanting to have my car swept away, I backed up a dried riverbed where the drainage would be funneled into the direction of where the storm was coming from. That way, the storm would have to pass over me first and give me a warning as to its where about, as opposed to being hit down hill by accumulated moisture that had turned into forceful river miles away.

I looked out at the moon illuminated landscape in front of me and listened to the wind start howling as a few drops of rain blew down. I watched and waited patiently for the storm to become my violent before finally deciding to go to bed. I grabbed my pillow and curled up to try and get some sleep.

It didn’t seem long before the sun rose. I circled around and drove through the Valley of the Gods a second time in what had to be the most beautiful commute on the planet. Breakfast in the nearby town of Bluff called to me before I headed towards the epic and classic Western scenery of Monument Valley.

From there I would make my way through Southeastern Utah. It was more like a scouting trip though, as I felt as silly as a tourist snapping up pictures in Times Square and the Statue of Liberty and thinking they've experienced New York City. Clicking away pictures on my cell phone (forgot my camera battery charger and it died on day one) couldn't capture the sheer massive scale, palate of subtle colors, and tranquil solitude of the area. One could spend an entire summer in the region and not run out of places to explore and see.

And yet, the splendor didn't occur from posing in front of the idyllic scenes before zipping off to the next icon with the accompanying zoo of humanity heading the same direction. Escaping the anxiety, stress, and illusionsary distractions of our modern existence were a ready welcome. Hitting the back trails and separating yourself from the rank and file, truly helps capture the exhilarating remoteness and the accompanying peace of mind of having nothing on your plate but the magnificence in front of you. That, is a discovery without price.

written by  JCinTheSouthPole on August 1, 2010 from Bluff, United States
from the travel blog: Southern Utah
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