Sorry it is taking a long time to get this now month-old story out, I’ve been a bit busy lately. Here is the (near) final installment in the early May Wyoming/Utah trip tales…
After some greasy breakfast and coffee with Mr. Brett Turner (yes, greasy breakfast and coffee with music friends is a MUST while on the road), we parted ways and I headed south out of Ogden. My destination was Moab, where I was playing a house concert that night, but I would have to make a few interesting pit-stops on the way, the first of which was Salt Lake City.
My Utah experience until this trip was pretty limited: Moab, Park City, and a drive through southern Utah to Las Vegas, as well as driving past SLC once. I had to stop, and I’ll admit, I’m a bit fascinated by the whole “Salt Lake City is to Mormonism as Rome is to Catholicism” thing, so, after a brief stop to the State Capitol, I walked down to Temple Square. Of course, this is the image everyone has in mind, and the only thing I really knew about downtown SLC…
Yep, it is a big church, though not as big as I thought it would be. No disrespect to Mormons, by the way, it just isn’t St. Pete’s in Rome is all. So yea, there are some pretty flowers, and lots of weddings going on (I probably ended up in the background of some photos), and since they don’t let non-Mormons into the Tabernacle, that was about it for my visit. There is also this weird office building, which actually houses the headquarters of the Church of Latter-Day Saints:
There is something very impersonal and strange, to me, anyways, about running a faith out of an office building. Makes it seem kind of like, I don’t know, a business…
Anyways, out of SLC and on to Moab!
Well, that is, until I decided to pull off the highway outside of Price, Utah for a creepy-as-hell trek down this dirt road:
The road leads into Horse Canyon, which seemed like a place that might have some hiking trails or something. Wrong, and like outside of Laramie on day 1 of this trip, I once again landed myself in super-creepy territory. After the road entered the canyon, I quickly came upon ruins of some type.
Again, I was the only human in sight, and there was an eerie wind blowing through the canyon. Despite the beautiful, sunny day, I felt cold. And if anyone has seen The Hills Have Eyes (the original), you might be able to get a sense for the weirdness in the air. I fully expected mutants to climb down the walls of the canyon after me. How about a few more strange pictures:
This was as far as I dared to venture inside on my lonesome. How about those large holes in the wall by the graffiti?
There were more of those human silhouette spots all over the outside (and inside, from what I could see) of the buildings. I found it weirder that they didn’t have bullet holes all over them, because I could see some locals using them for target practice. So why were they there?
Couldn’t really muster up the courage to go through this door…
I wandered around the ruins for about a half-hour, but could not shake the freaky vibes, and so, before becoming a victim in a Wes Craven film, I drove the hell out of Horse Canyon. Yea, I’m probably a big wuss. After reaching Moab I did some research and found out that the buildings were part of the abandoned Horse Canyon Mine, which this decidedly brave Price, UT local unabashedly explored and photographed, incredibly. I’ll go back with a friend sometime, I promise.
Oh yeah, check out that drive into Moab:
I played a house concert that night for the Community Rebuilds organization, a great bunch of folks who build energy-efficient, sustainable housing for low-income families. I played in front of their garage in the backyard, with a campfire, Christmas lights, and around forty amazing people as company. It was a beautiful evening, and one of the best crowds I have ever had the privilege of playing for. Moab, I shall return, you were amazing. Thanks for listening to my long-winded stories between songs, I probably talked more than played, but hey, you gave me the PBR.
Stay tuned for the conclusion, which will really mostly be photos from my excursion the next day to Arches National Park, before I drove back to Denver…