Utah versus Nevada..

by mnaz

Posted to Roadgoing on 2004-06-06 19:53:00

I was wondering…

How could these two places possibly exist right next to each other? Utah is… preposterous vertical red rock. Nevada is… scaleless open basin and range grace. Utah is filled with people following a strict authoritarian religious creed; Nevada is populated by prospectors and outlaws and fools– all three in one usually.

Why do people head into the desert? Rebellion? Maybe that’s it. Against the slow death of common sense or safety; against assigned identity or beliefs; against “morality”; against “sin”… I’m not sure. It just seems everything in the desert is extreme, or limitless; almost like a searing dementia at times. It is hard to find any trace of moderation…

Southern Utah is a mess. Don’t even think about harboring notions of getting from Point A to B. The roads all make their attempts; their own versions of snaking through a tangle of confused canyons; but they are destinations unto themselves.

That solid rock upheaval… I find it to be stunning at times. So far over the top that I cannot dial it in. Disengage your rational mind when traveling through that jumbled part of the world. None of those cliffs have any real right to exist; they are like a strange virtual simulation; like something I might have ordered solely for my traveling amusement, that is, if I possessed the imagination…

But I am never too far from thoughts of unknown catastrophic violence when I confront Utah’s towering cliffs. What happened there? When I passed through, I was bestowed with peace and quiet. An odd sort of peace… lending credence to the idea that beauty should “scare you” on some levels; like art which exposes what is unsettled inside of you, seen in just the right light.

The cartoon-like vertical scenes made me reach for my camera every few minutes, but they never seemed authentic, no matter how many walls of sandstone I touched….

I never quite made it through Utah’s giant puzzle. The road sent me back here into Nevada… But I have no problem with that. I like it here. Nothing much happens on my porch except the hum of a Coke machine and moths bouncing off a metal awning…