Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary: Day 28: Heber City UT

The quality of the Muzak in Sunday night's hotel left a lot to bee desired. To describe the ballads on offer as "soupy" would be to overstate their general level of grittiness by an order or two of magnitude. Consommé, perhaps. When the most rock'n'roll track on the loop was "Blue Velvet"...

Back eastwards on US-40 for the first part of today's anabasis. I must have down this bit in the opposite direction on the very first proper USAnian road trip in 2003, but that time I arrived in Vernal in the dark and probably left it before sunrise too. I don't remember any of it. Vernal is Fossil Central for dinosaur fans; to mark this I filled up That Shitbox Dodge with Sinclair motor-spirit, as it's made from actual dinosaurs¹

Dino-infested hills near Vernal

More dino-infested hills near Vernal

From Vernal it's northwards up US-191, which climbs up to around 2500 metres, has lots of wiggly bits and, as a consequence, someone else's accident. A pickup hit something with its right front corner in a spot where only a madman would attempt to overtake. The 191 turns right where what I thought would be the more scenic route goes straight on, but I went down it for a bit anyway to visit the Flaming Gorge Dam.

Our old mucker John Wesley Powell thought the Flaming Gorge was one of the highlights of his trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, so it was inevitable that some bozo would want to put most of it under water. While The Mgt has some fresh and spiffy signs telling the visitor to the dam all about the wildlife on offer in the area, the one telling us about the environmental consequences of the dam has faded into near-illegibility. I wonder why.

The potentially-scenic route does have some scenery that isn't under water yet, though after Manila it's pretty much high desert all the way past the Wyoming state line and down into the town of Green River.

Sheep Creek - part of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir

Descent into Green River WY. Runaway truck ramp closed. Ulp.

A brief burst east on I-80 and then back on US-191 heading north-east through high desert so relentlessly dull I had to stop for a nap. Ominous-looking smoke cloud billowing up in the west too. I'm sure I've done this bit before too, in the other direction but ICBA to look up the year.

The Boar's Tusk - volcanic core in the high desert NE of Rock Springs WY

Smoke, Wyoming, Monday

After a lot of desert, the road suddenly drops off its plateau and heads into the valley of the Hoback River, and subsequently into that of the Snake, over the Idaho state line and down to Idaho Falls. The last few miles being across the cleverly-named Snake River Plain, which is dead agricultural and thus in marked contrast to most of the previous 500 miles. Longest drive of the trip thus far and unlikely to be exceeded unless something goes Horribly Wrong.