We don't tend to go to typical places.
"Where's the next trip?" you ask.
I tell you.
Pretty much every time you have a similar reaction -- a raised eyebrow and an increduously toned "Really?"
Utah is no exception.
"Great skiing around Salt Lake," you try.
"Actually, we're going to southern Utah. Grand Staircase. Escalante. Capitol Reef. Bryce Canyon. Zion National Park."
Then there's the next expression on your face - blankness. You know that these are places, but you have utterly no idea of where these places are, what is in them, and why anyone would want to go there.
A moment usually flashes by when you want to ask why. But it quickly passes and is replaced by the "That sounds great!" which means "That is so wierd I don't even know where to begin asking any questions." And that normally closes the discussion.
So for all of you who are left scratching your heads over Utah, I'll continue the conversation.
"In the high desert of the southwest, you can find certain qualities. There's the lack of people. Also, the high percentage of government-owned land, which concentrates the population center and prevents sprawl. You add those two together and you get an environment where corporations have little interest -- not enough of a market to bother with. So you get an economy based on locally-owned businesses run by the folks you find in the shops.
"It's dry, hence the desert. It's far away from cities & manufacturing, which makes for very clean air. And it's about a mile up, so it's both hot and chilly in the same day. Although I've spent my entire life in the south, I've grown to despise the endemic humidity and mosquitoes of the summer. I prefer the weather there.
"Southern Utah is not the eastern seaboard with its harried speed and emphasis on money and sucess. As it always has, the West has a pull with its promise of harder work at a slower pace.
"Then there's the landscape. The geology of the land is right there for you to experience. It's not buried under shopping malls or forested mountains. It's convoluted sandstone everywhere you can look. With mountains and valleys, canyons and peaks. Every step has its own skyline. And this is where I begin to get a bit loony. There's an emotional, even spiritual quality to the land out there that I have not found here in the east."
By now your expression has changed from blankness to a slight concern bordering on trepidation. You think "TMI," but you say, "Wow, I didn't realize that you had thought it out that much."
You shake my hand and bid me farewell. "Make sure you post the picture online," as you walk away. Meanwhile my thoughts have drifted away from our parting and my mind is filled with sandstone vistas and the smell of the crisp morning air of Boulder, Utah.
