Salt Lake City, what to say, it really has no redeeming features as far as I'm concerned....
We were taken to an amazing, enormous (biggest in the world I believe) Copper Mine just outside of town. Truly an astonishing 'thing'. Closed for two years in the 1980s, but re-opened within 2 years. bigger and better than ever. Still mining amazing quantities of Copper, and has embarked on major land rejuvenation projects, which are awesome!!
We also went to see the famous 'Salt Lake' of the city's name. A singularly ugly creation, had to drive through miles of unloved industrial wasteland to even get there, and once there, you wonder why you bothered.... It's so salty, nothing lives in it, with the exception of some invisible tiny crustaceans!!! A few desperate seagulls hang around, but who knows what they do that for!!
Salt Lake City sits in a huge "dish", surrounded on three sides by mountains, mostly appearing as ghostly apparitions at this stage, due to the thick smoke haze engulfing Utah and surrounding states.
Arthur insisted that Athol (our hapless guide) take us through the centre of town to see the Mormon edifices - yay!!!!! His punishment was to get totally lost on the way back to our camp, and the entire journey took us twice as long as it should have!!!
We left SLC in what turned out to be the rush hour. OMG, driving on the freeway was like being in the Grand Prix.. We assumed that they all drive like lunatics because they "know" the big bloke upstairs was keeping them safe. It was terrifying!!! Four lanes of traffic in each direction, hurtling along at 65mph (not sure what that is in kms), bumper-to-bumper.... zig-zagging in and out of lanes, at 8.45am. Where are they all going???? Surely they're late for work!!!!!
We noted that there are so many Mormon churches in this town (white spires poking above the roofs), that it is probable that nobody needs to take more than 5-10 minutes, ever, to get to Church!!!!!
Once we had left the outer suburbs of SLC, we found ourselves driving through a magical valley, covered in trees full of Autumn foliage. Absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful sunny day too, smoke from bushfires seems to be thinning.
We drove through Price Canyon, actually have been in Canyons all the way so far, and there are still mountains in every direction. Sometimes we are driving way above the canyon floor, and at other times, we are driving on the floor, beside a stream at the bottom.
We found ourselves in a very small town, in the middle of nowhere, and there was an ENORMOUS Mormon Church, stunningly maintained and presented.... About 1km down the road, there was a sad little Baptist Church, - nice(!) - actually, in an old garage..... Pathetic.....
This valley suddenly turned into an expansive desert. god awful country, dry as a bone, no human habitation for miles, and even the ubiquitous Sagebrush was absent. Huge bare rock mountains to one side, moonscape the other, for miles and miles. There were fences and cattle yards!!!! OMIGOD... Why??? Surely no animal could live out here!!!
Then..... A nice river appeared, and with it a small town, green trees, and green paddocks, nice.... Then, as quickly as that appeared, it ended, and we went back to the lunar landscape.... Damned weird country!!
Finally arrived in Moab. Nice, modern town, and obviously catering to tourists. Set up our RV, and had a drink or two in the cool of the evening...
A
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