Martin from Green River

Some random thoughts (I leave complexity to Janet).

 

I’ve driven cross -country a few times, including as a hitchhiker and once on a camping trip with my family when I was about seven. This time I am really struck by the aridness of the southwest. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah (and other states as well that we have not visited) are huge expanses of desert with small scrub bushes and the periodic cactus and mesquite tree on the landscape. In Texas it was so flat I thought there could never reach the end of a road; here in Utah the land undulates and there are stark outlandish mesas – but it is all so dry.

We are camping next to the Green River which is at high water from snow runoff from Wyoming. The banks of the river are green but if you turn ten yards away from the river you are in desert again with few signs of life. It is not easy for people to live in these conditions and we’ve driven hundreds of miles seeing few houses and gone through towns that are close to fully abandoned; people have – I assume – adapted to desert conditions by congregating in larger towns and cities that provide the  scale to develop  water management systems.

We made the right decision in taking Gus out of school and going on our trip before the summer season begins.  We’ve had little trouble finding camp sites. (One of the best was at Apache National Forest in Arizona. We arrived after a long day of driving with no reservations.  The campground had about 60 sites and only two were taken and we picked a lovely quiet site among the ponderosa pines. Unfortunately, the campground “host” [there is a host family at all the parks] was lonely and wanted to chat a bit too much.)  We’ve gone to a lot of park ranger led programs and the groups have been small.  There are no lines at museums and the gift shop staff have plenty of time on their hands. From what we understand, the parks explode with people mid-June when the schools in California get out. It would still be a wonderful trip mid-summer but there would be the added frustration of dealing with masses of people. (Janet and Gustavo will attest to the fact that patience is not my strongest virtue and I don’t always respond well to queues.)

We rented our pop-up trailer from Mikkelson’s RV in East Montpelier and got a very good price because we are travelling pre-season.  A noticeable change from the last time I was out west is that most tourists rent RVs from a few large dealerships: Cruise USA, RV America. These are fairly compact RVs and are splashed with gaudy images, graphics, and web site addresses.  But this seems like a good way to take a short trip: fly into Las Vegas or Phoenix or Salt Lake and rent a camper for a week or two. 

But I like having the pop-up: it’s only a step above a tent and our life must be compact. And we are thrilled by the drive cross country – to see the landscape evolve (except for the ubiquitous Dollar Store). We are lucky to have the luxury of time for this trip.