Total Miles Driven: 16,197
Hi everyone ! I am writing from a suburb of Dallas where I am making the last preparations before heading South into Mexico. The last bit since Vegas has been action-packed as usual, and I didn't stop one bit. I drove over 2,000 miles, visited 6 National Parks, one National Monument and one UFO crash site, and I met some very interesting folks in between. So let me begin with a recount of my journey:
Grand Canyon
My first stop was the world-famous Grand Canyon - a majestic fault that is as deep as it is wide and that doesn't need any further description. You have all seen it before (at least in picture), and it looks exactly as it sounds - just Grand.
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| Millions of years in the making. |
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| Inspiration point. |
Utah
Utah is a very special state in several ways. First, it is incredibly scenic. Every time you turn your head you bump in another National Park. But then, you have the mormon majority that runs the state and that has implemented a very weird and contradictory set of laws (in my opinion of course - I apologize if I offended any mormon readers).
One of those laws makes polygamy tolerated and still practiced in some mormon groups. I think that's really cool but is becoming less and less common and less accepted due to some "abuses" that occurred more recently.
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| Why have just one ? |
The other set of laws concerns alcohol restrictions. Utah has been historically prohibitive regarding alcohol in very many ways, for example:
- No alcohol sales on Sunday, or any day after 1AM
- You need a private membership card to enter into any bar - and you need to be sponsored by a current member to obtain membership
- Bars and taverns cannot sell beer above 4% alcohol, and the maximum alcohol in any drink is 2 ounces (forget about having a Long Island Iced Tea anywhere in the state...)
- You cannot have more than one drink in front of you at a time - so you cannot order that second beer until the first one is completely empty and out of the way...
Good news, the laws got loosened up a bit (woohoo I can drink before going to church), but they are still very restrictive. Somehow I believe in an individual's choice and personal responsibility and prefer when the state doesn't get too involved with restricting our personal lives. To each his own, I suppose.
But to come back with the positive gorgeousness of the state and its incredible rock formations...
Zion National Park has a famous hiking trail called Angel's Landing. It is a narrow strip of rock (sometimes just a few yards wide) jutting out of the valley a few thousand feet... a bit scary, but an incredible hike.
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| Entrance into the valley at Zion. |
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| On top of Angel's Landing. |
Bryce Canyon National Park is famous for its hoodoos covering the canyon floor - those hoodoos are rock fingers formed by erosion that create a supernatural landscape. The best part is that there is a trail going all the way down to the canyon then back up through the hoodoos.
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| Climbing the hoodoos can be dangerous. |
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| The wonders of erosion. |
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| Balancing Rock called Thor's Hammer. |
But this is not all - just a little bit south of the Arches I drove through Monument Valley towards Arizona. This Valley was made most famous by John Wayne who used it as main set for 5 of his western movies. Just looking at the stone monuments from the valley floor transported me to earlier decades, and I could almost imagine the indians down below chasing the cowboys (or vice versa).
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| Favourite view of John Wayne. |
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| Monumental close-up. |
Colorado
Unfortunately I did not spend much time in Colorado as my path only took me through the Southwest corner of it. However, my time was well spent through two very unique National Landmarks.
First, I entered Colorado through the Four Corners National Monument. The monument unites the corners of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah - all in perfect alignment. I cannot say that the monument is scenic or beautiful in any way, but I could not miss the significance of stepping on the cornerstones and feeling like your body parts are scattered over four states. Truly the perfect place to commit murder.
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| The monument itself. |
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| One monster in every state. |
My second Colorado adventure was in Mesa Verde National Park. I was almost about to skip it as I had never heard much about it, but a friend strongly suggested I visit it - and I am glad I did. Mesa Verde contains the largest and most elaborate cave dwellings in North America. Imagine Macchu Picchu, but in a Northern Climate. As impressive as those cave dwellings were, what shocked me the most was the realization that hundreds of people once populated those cliff villages - where water and food is very scarce and the climate gets to both extremes every year... how did they do it ?
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| Village on the side of a cliff. |
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| Can you imagine living there ? |
New Mexico
I really thought Utah was weird... until I came to New Mexico. Unique, quirky, cool. Everything is different there. The cities are different, the landscape is different, even the National Parks are different.
I entered New Mexico through the North, and visited the two main towns of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Both are very interesting in their own way. Santa Fe is very artsy, with galleries and cafes all over the place. Both towns have a very unique architecture that is strongly Mexican influenced.
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| Church entrance in Santa Fe. |
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| Old town marketplace in Albuquerque. |
And then as you keep going south, things get really weird when you arrive in Roswell. I have always been a huge fan of X-files and UFO stories, so Roswell was truly a highlight of my trip. I spent a night there, and it was everything I expected... and then some. One thing that enchanted me was the friendliness of the locals. On the night I stayed in Roswell, I met with the friendliest locals of any place that I have visited so far (including the chef at Billy Ray's steakhouse, the best steak in town) who adopted me for the night and took me to local dive bar. The ambiance (dark and mysterious), the attitude of the bartender (she refused to serve me even though I wasn't drunk, because of "liability issues", plus she was convinced that the money I handed her was fake - - - DEJA VU!!!) and the openness of the patrons are hard to describe - you have to experience it. However I can say that I would not have been surprised to see some of them go back home in a flying saucer.
And of course, the Roswell story is as interesting as it is far-fetched... a UFO crashes... the government covers it up... hundreds of direct and indirect witnesses, but there is only circumstancial evidence... I loved it !
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| International UFO museum. |
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| Little green men everywhere. |
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| Government officials conspiring. |
And last but not least... Carlsbad Caverns. The last National Park before I head to Mexico. And the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I did not know such a place existed! A huge network of caves, 800 feet below the surface of the earth. You can walk down or take an elevator (I walked), and then you get into caves that are over 1 mile long and hundreds of feet high. I felt like I just walked into an Indiana Jones movie (or is it the Mummy?) and was expecting to walk into skeletons or ghosts at every corner. It was a little bit spooky - chilly of course, very dark and absolutely silent except for the sound of water dripping and winged mammals fluttering. But how amazing ! Everywhere you could see gigantic stalactites/mites, rocks shaped like living things, gigantic Buddha-like boulders. A different world altogether.
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| This one was called the Shark's Jaw. |
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| Magnificent columns created by dripping water. |
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| This one reminded me of a giant Buddha. |
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| Looks like a big potato ? |
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| This one was called the puppet theater. |
Wasn't this cool ? Wait until you see my next post !
Until then,
DMR
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