SLC for the night

Made it to Salt Lake City for the night. Can't get unloaded until in the morning at 8am (mountain time....9am for my time). So I am settled in to watch the Olympics for the night and resting. I'll run on up to my drop under the cover of darkness sometime tonight and be there when they get in to work.

Erin is working hard trying to find me a run out of here that will run over the weekend. Have no idea where I will be headed from here....as usual, chasing the dollar!!

On the way up here from Lubbock the winds were terrific! I'm in a flatbed and it pushed me around all day and into the night. In fact, once I got to US-491 and was headed north from I-40 it really got interesting.

 

This shot above was on right after I got onto US-491. The light spots that you see on the highway are actually sand being blown across.

 This shot was obviously at sunset...but you couldn't see the sunset due to the dusty air. As the night dragged on....the blowing wind borne dust got to the point that it was like a whiteout.....only brown....your lights don't penetrate a wall of dirt....needless to say, it is rather unnerving! 

One of these days I will stop here and have a look at this place. I've seen shows about it, and ads for it, and there is no telling how many times I have driven past here....and have yet to stop to check it out. There is a rest area about 1/4 mile north of it, but I still haven't been there!!!!  Oh, and if you can enlarge this picture, take a look at the top left side of the rock...I didn't notice until I was uploading the picture, but there is a Jeep on the top of the rock...now that is some serious rock crawling!!  LOL

US-491 runs up from Gallup, NM thru Cortez, CO and into Utah thru Green River and then thru Moab. Depending on your outlook on "beauty", this run up 491 thru the Moab mountains and then thru Price, UT and the Price Gorge is just absolutely gorgeous. In fact, even if you don't really care for the barenness of this part of the world you will be struck by the just outright massiveness of the hills and mountains and the plains. And the colors...you are inundated by red all around you!!

 

 But this is the first time after many trips thru this area that I have ever noticed this blue/green coloration of some of the dirt and rocks. I am going to have to do a little research, but the color makes me think that it is a high iron ore content....hmmmm....I'll have to find the answer!!  LOL