Moab Utah to Bryce Canyon.
Truth be told, I am starting to get a little overwhelmed by Utah's scenic landscape. I am just not used to seeing the rocks, canyons, mesas and vast desert that I have been treated to for the past couple of days. The highpoint so far was yesterday's drive from Moab to Bryce Canyon. The drive was only a couple of hundred miles and can take about 4 hours or so if you limit your stops. I did it in about 6.5, because I stopped so many times to gawk and take pictures. For a relatively short trip, the variety of landscape was very impressive. Leaving Moab, I took I-70 and 24 west through the flat, barren mesa country. The sign I saw on I-70 near the town of Green River (where I stopped for some Arby's) said it all: "No Service Stations for 110 miles". As I learned in Kansas, though flat does not mean boring. For about 70 miles, it was like driving on a airport runway through the arid desert. It may be the first time I ever set the cruise control to 100....the road was completely desolate, with an occasional car passing in the other direction. Looming off in the distance were huge mesas, which looked pretty eerie off on the horizon.
Gradually, the landscape got more rugged and mountainous, and before long I found myself in a landscape that can best be described as "lunar". Petrified sand dunes, grey sand and towering red/brown mesas made the entire place look like a movie set for Mars. Pretty crazy.
Finally, the route wound its way (and I do mean WOUND) up into the mountains, which were very lush in comparison to the moon-like place in my rearview mirror. At high altitude, the road was lined by a birch forest and provided a great, panoramic view of the valleys below. Descending the mountains, I was again in canyon country and within sight of my next stop, Bryce Canyon
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