The Great Western Roadtrip, Part 1

Whenever I go visit a friend in some far off land, I like to rent a car before or after that visit and go out and explore the country. When I go visit New York friends, I'll spend a day or two up in New England, or when I visit Oregon friend, I'll explore the great Northwest. A few weeks ago, when I met Brant in Las Vegas, I had a week's vacation, so I did a somewhat extreme version of this. 2600 miles, 7 states, 5 national parks. I started in Las Vegas, and worked north by northeast across southern Utah to Telluride, Colorado. From there it was a straight shot north into Wyoming to the Tetons and Yellowstone, before circling back to Mormon country and flying out of Salt Lake. I absolutely love the west. I'm sure a part of me will always regret never living out there. My requirements for such trips are a couple of books (The DaVinci Code and A Brief History of the Dead, the latter being much better than the former), my iPod (which briefly died 15 miles out of Las Vegas, causing much, thankfully short-lived, rage), my camera, and a lot of film. Anyway, what follows are some pictures, in sort-of-chronological order, from my time out west.

This is what's supposed to be the world's tallest chocolate fountain, in a confectionary in the Bellagio Casino. There are three little rivers of chocolate: Dark, milk, and white. Unfortunately, the whole deal is behind glass so you can't stick your face in it. The chocolate must remain untouched by human hands.

The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, home to Mt. Charleston, at 11,900 feet the tallest peak in southern Nevada. Incredibly, this is only about 40 miles or so from the Las Vegas Strip. We went hiking out here, up to a waterfall at about 9000 feet in elevation. The waterfalls are in the picture below. That would be Brant in the lower left hand corner.

Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. Southern Utah had some of the most amazing and remote landscapes I had ever seen. The picture below is the overlook towards Escalante Canyon. This overlook, according to a nearby sign, is one of the best places in the country for stargazing, since the nearest manmade light is almost 40 miles away. Conveniently, I was there in midmorning.

Glen Canyon and the Colorado River, still in southern Utah. I think that this is also supposed to be the high end of Lake Powell, but the drought put a stop to it. Finally, since its late and I'm tired, we'll end with a couple of pictures of Bryce Canyon, probably my favorite of the Utah National Parks. The geology of the rock formations there was beautiful.

So that ends the picture show for today. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) there is still Colorado, the Grand Tetons (my personal favorite), and Yellowstone to go, but those pictures will wait for another time.