The westward course of bathtub rings (Potash, Utah)

Where does salt come from? And how can I never have wondered that before? The bathtub ring of Lake Mead and the westward course of empire should have got me thinking about this sooner.

All that wide blue sky (Kanab and Paria)

"But for me, oh it was the acting" (31s)
Only not in this case.

We saw the new Magnificent Seven a few weeks ago. (That was my allowance of murders for the month, can't watch any more for a while.) The story was interesting enough - it's a remake, and one of the classic plots, so no real surprises. The film likewise, especially in its context as one of a series (Seven Samurai, the original Magnificent Seven, and even The Avengers is not stretching the point too far.) The costuming was not bad, though the female pseudo-protagonist showed way too much bosom for a respectable woman of the period who wasn't at an evening party. (And not enough actual, y'know, character development. Ugh! Say it with me, boobs are not characters ... unless you're a comic strip.) Several of the characters were very striking - such a villain! - but for me, oh it was the scenery.

Image by Geraint Smith via jerrygarrett.wordpress.com

'Bonanza' set near Kanab, UT
On private property and unmaintained,
it is slowly succumbing to weather

I am enchanted with the cliffs and mesas of the region they call 'Indian Country' (which is gah, idk, hopeless understatement, much of the continent was Indian Country. However.) The ground in such shades of orange and brown among the green, it is no wonder the sky looks so blue. M7 was shot in New Mexico (and Louisiana, but that can't possibly be the landscape shots) but it could just as well take its place with dozens of earlier westerns filmed at Paria, Utah, or other locations not far from Kanab.

It is hard to convey in words how satisfying to the eye is the sweep of a long sagebrush flat, or a mesa rippling with golden-headed grasses, with the unpredictable shapes of the hills rising beside - the weird angles where different layers have been pushed, pulled, folded, or have eroded at different rates, the effect of patient wind and furious water, or long-dead volcanic eruption. In this case, too rivers and streams - though in our further west country, it is much drier.

from a prominence above old Paria town, GSENM, UT

Abruptly I want to learn how to ride a horse. (Up til now been afraid of horses for decades.) And oh, so looking forward to our trip to New Mexico later in the year.

Springs and the Calligraphy Highway pt 4 (Really? 4?): Calculating Pie

Okay it's officially the Weekend that Would Not End. Did we really do all this stuff in two days? Brain hurts just thinking about it and carpal tunnel syndrome on the horizon.

After our sobering visit to the Meadow Mountains site, we continued south down the valley. We were on the way home, but by no means finished yet. I'd seen Gunlock Reservoir and State Park on the map, it was over 110 degrees and we thought a swim would be all right. So, turning off at Veyo, down the 3184 - ooh, 4 digit road - we were bound.

But we got a bit side tracked by a sign about pies (that this can happen explains a lot about us.)

And not just a sign, but an actual pie bakery. It was too much to hope that there might be proper meat pies like at home, but the coincidence was too much to ignore. With a nod to the great Viands bakery in Kihikihi, we felt we really should stop at Veyo Pies. (Check their website. Many gifs.)

Pros:

• Pies, obviously
• Both start with V
• Both at the turnoff to expected awesomeness with swimming above a dam
• Hungry
• Is that guy on the bench there actually real or one of those very lifelike porch dummies? (He smiled back at me, so I'm going with 'real'.)

Cons:

• Yeah, hurry up so I can lock the car. It's hot out here.

Result:

• They have a volcano pie.
• Yes, a volcano pie. It is chocolate pudding and caramel and cream. Though I think I preferred the sour cream and lemon pie.

At Gunlock we picnicked in questionable shade and made coffee in the crazy heat - I'll post more some time about my wonderful stove - gotta have coffee with your pie. Then walked across the dam to an orange sand beach and oh yes that water was not boiling, not even once you were in.

But the pleasures of more eroded sandstone were still in wait. We continued down the gorge of the Santa Clara, through the extremely lovely Shivwits Paiute land, and around east towards St George, to find further wonders:

How had I never heard about this?

These sandstone cliffs are stunning. I have never heard anyone mention them, never really seen them in guidebooks. It's amazing to live in a region where something this exquisite is no special cause for comment. 

If this weren't enough for a sense of perspective ... we proceeded through charming, historical, Santa Clara town (once a separate place, now part of the ever-spreading urbanosis that is St George) to this stop that Simon wanted to make and I happily seconded: Tuacahn Performing Arts High School and its astounding amphitheatre. You have to ask yourself, how confident would a performer need to be to have this as a backdrop?

And finally, a run down through the wild and scenic Beaver Dam Wash, a brief stop at quirky Beaver Dam AZ for iceblocks and cold drinks ... and on down the I15.

Coming down the interstate, you crest a gentle rise of land and Las Vegas is suddenly revealed, wrapped in the milky, fine, and alkaline dust of a million years of erosion, evaporation, wind blowing over desert. The towers and strange shapes in that soft light are like a dream half remembered, or a memory half dreamed. 

Yeah, we're nearly home.    

Itinerary

Sunday: Meadow Mountains Historical Site Overlook, Turn right onto 3184 at Veyo, Gunlock State Park, Kayenta, Tuacahn, Beaver Dam, Las Vegas.