Day 51

I feel better about beaching my car. On the road back to the highway, I encountered a new type of roadblock: a semi-truck had somehow jammed itself sideways into a sand dune. I carefully off-roaded around it, not sure what help, if any, I could offer. To my surprise, there was no driver. A Mojave mystery! I figured it may have a dangerous answer, so I kept on trucking.

The Great Basin to my left and the Mojave to my right, I took I-15 out of necessity and left Vegas in the dust. The road took me through Arizona for about half an hour; this is where the red cliffs started. I’m talking Mars-level, Minecraft-canyon-biome red. They are shockingly scarlet. I-15 bridged for miles through these canyons, and I felt better about taking the interstate.

I would have taken a picture of the cliffs in St. George, Utah, which was my destination for today. The weather had other ideas. As soon as I arrived, the skies lost color and the wind kicked up. I don’t know if it was a dust storm or a sandstorm, but it sucked the life out of the landscape and drove me back into the driver’s seat. Tomorrow I’ll make up for it.

It’s another beautiful night in the desert; I felt inspired enough to keep working on lyric sketches. I think I’ll come out of this trip with some pretty decent songs. The next two weeks or so should be equally stirring. I’ve wanted to go to Utah for years now, so my pace will likely slow to a crawl as I take in as much natural wonder as I can.