The expansive views that greet the traveler’s eye in Utah provide profound moments of awe. And you could be traveling almost anywhere in the state. That’s so unusual to me, an odd thing to think that in any direction within minutes you can find jaw-dropping beauty. I recently retook the VIA Character Strengths Test, & again “Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence” made it into my top 5, moving from #4 to #3 within a year. (I only retook the test because colleagues pointed out that the test had been updated with different kinds of questions & that they were getting different results.) It may be that our strengths & values shift over time, which would make sense of lifespan development in psychological terms. For me, beauty is something that keeps me in its thrall. As you might observe from my blog posts, I use a number of images that speak to me–either from photos I’ve taken myself or open-access images (when I don’t have time or relevant photos of my own to use).
By & large, I do try to use my own photography so that the reader can see things through my eyes, as much as I can recreate or capture them.
One of the most incredible things about this state is its varying landscapes. You can drive past rolling hills & fields dotted with farms with a massive blue backdrop of mountains in the distance. You can see red & white rock-faces jutting out into the horizon over forests & lakes. As you’ve seen from other posts, southern Utah holds some of the more familiar images the average person might know–the canyons & dry landscapes with succulents as you draw closer to Colorado. North of Salt Lake City, you can either go to white salt flats or into the Park City area, moving northeast towards Wyoming. If you pursue a northwest direction then you can edge towards Idaho by way of farmlands or even Antelope Island with roaming bison. From Big Cottonwood Canyon, using Guardsman’s Pass, you can make an arc towards Park City & then take the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway for a lovely Sunday jaunt.
And even though months ago I had traveled this route, on this excursion I felt surprised by the radical differences in color & appearance the summer & sky had made.
One of the unexpected sights encountered took the form of cattle who were roaming “open range” like the signs warned. My almost-three-year-old son had a ball exclaiming, “more cows” & mooing, while all I could think about was Christopher Walken & his shout for “more cowbell.” A fan of the film Open Range (yes, I like Kevin Costner films & watch the show Yellowstone, filmed near here in the Park City area), I thrilled at the vision of the cows moseying across the road. Like the bison who lazily graze on Antelope Island, there’s something that stirs within when seeing these animals in their natural setting, in line with the mythical images of the Old West.
In a week, I will be travelling with family to visit Yellowstone National Park for the first time, & I’m very excited to take pictures & catalog our journey. We will be staying at four different lodges & visiting a number of the most well-known attractions. From the Grand Tetons to Old Faithful, I’m excited to finally see the places I could only observe through a View-Master or in slides as a kid. I often think of the naturalists who adventured through these magnificent wonders, the writers & painters who inspired generations through their literature & art. Since I’ll have some time, I’m also interested in learning more about Roosevelt & the National Park Service, our country’s greatest treasure according to famed documentarian Ken Burns.
As I’ve noted before, the temperature drops quite steadily between Salt Lake City & Mirror Lake, with a difference of 30 degrees. At 89 degrees in the Valley, the temperature dropped down to a cool 59 degrees by Mirror Lake, creating a considerable contrast in clime. I’ve noticed that the intensity of the sun differs from that found in New England, or at least it feels like it to me. It’s also wildfire season south of Salt Lake City, due to the dryness, winds, & scorching temperatures or lightning strikes. Two weeks ago, the smoke affected the air quality of the Valley, so the crisp clear air of the forests & mountains provided even more respite than usual. The clarity of atmosphere needs to be treasured, as my father often told me after returning from Saudi Arabia where oil fires polluted the air to the point that he could barely see across the street.
Amazing, the simple things we can often take for granted. At least, I can try to reflect & feel grateful here.
There’s another leg of this Sunday drive that I’ll post about later in the week, but for now I feel renewed by soaking in natural beauty again & again, in photography & writing. I often feel blessed, & not in a humblebrag hashtag sense. I genuinely feel incredible gratitude in my good fortune of being afforded the privilege of these landscapes to see within easy distances. My sense of distances has been changing out here in the West, as I’ll have resided in Utah for a year come the end of the month–which is crazy to me. What I used to think of as a long drive of 2.5 hours to Rhode Island seems quick compared to the 4.5 hours driving south, only to remain in the same state!
Things like altitude & low humidity have had their effects as well, so I’m curious to see how I continue to adapt in multifaceted ways, the longer I’m here, even in terms of mountains & scale.
