Dateline: Green River, Utah. In the last three days we've visited Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park, and have driven across central Utah. What follows are some thoughts about these places.
First, if you drive north from Bryce to I-70 and then east to Green River, as we did today, you see an enormous amount of essentially empty country. Across the middle of Utah on I-70 there is a stretch of roughly 100 miles where you literally can't buy a gallon of gasoline, or find a motel room. So...what is my point? The point is that most Americans live in urban places and have the feeling that the United States is densely populated - it isn't. Much of this country is essentially unpopulated - lightly-used pasture, forest or just wasteland.
Second, Bryce is one of those places you've got to see to believe. You'll look at the odd spires the sandstone has eroded into at Bryce and tell yourself rock cannot do stuff like this. Seriously, it looks like something Walt Disney dreamed up and put together out of wire mesh and gunite. It looks like Disney but is actually Mom Nature's work: gaudy colors, hoodoos and natural bridges.
Third, Kodachrome Basin was named for the color film, by the National Geographic Society. Its claim to fame is a crop of rock phallic symbols of many sizes and shapes. Check out the second picture for this area at the other DrC's blog (cruztalking.blogspot.com) - it is 30 feet tall, anatomically correct enough to be X-rated, and entirely natural in occurrence. Kodachrome Basin is not heavily visited, being overshadowed by several National Park Service attractions nearby.
Fourth, Green River is one of those towns that seem to have little intrinsic reason to exist. Half the storefronts in town are empty, and the other half look like they might be soon. In that it reminds me of Lovelock, Nevada, or some of the little towns in the Texas outback.
I'd guess most of Green River's revenue comes from providing services to folks passing through on I-70. That and maintaining the infrastructure: highway repair, police, fire, utilities, and schools for the kids of the folks who do all of the above. It is 100 miles from Grand Junction, CO, and 130 from Provo, UT, probably the nearest WalMarts or chain supermarkets. This place is seriously isolated.
