Desert road trip

December 25-27, 1998

Being bored on Christmas Day, I set out for a drive across the Southwestern deserts. I traveled across Utah and Nevada on I-15 and US50, dipped down through Death Valley, California, visited Las Vegas and Hoover Dam, and stopped at the Grand Canyon before passing through Four Corners and coming home to Denver.

As usual -- click on the small image to get a bigger and better image.


Driving across east-central Utah on US50.


A bird decided to try and take on my car. It did not succeed. It's amazing the damage a vehicle moving at 90mph can do to a fluffy little bird.


Here's me, stuck in a time vortex between time zones.


Here's me, standing in front of the highway sign in Ely, Nevada, which proclaims US50 as the "Loneliest Road in America". This is the same sign that I took a night picture of in February 1998 when I was last in the area.


Yup, Eureka was a pretty lonely town, all right -- but it did manage to have a gas station/pool hall for passing adventurers.

I passed through Death Valley, California, but it was somewhat disappointing. After crossing over the Funeral Mountains into the valley, I was hoping to see some skulls in the sand or vultures circling over my head, but instead I was greeted with happy-happy resorts and golf courses.


After passing through the tourist-trap glitzy Death Valley, I decided that I needed to go somewhere genuine; somewhere that possessed deep intrinsic value. Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada!


Leaving Las Vegas.



These pictures are from Grand Canyon, Arizona.


An interesting highway sign in southwest Colorado near the town of Cortez.