Monday, August 30, 2010

Long ribbon of road, part 2

Every town we have driven through the past few days has a surplus of stray dogs. This was one of many who slept in our hotel parking lot. If I collected them all.... 

But I don't collect these dogs. I collect photographs of sites we don't see in our desert hometown. The aspens in Colorado just capture your eyes and your thoughts. You can't react, the ripple of the leaves own you.

And soon you lose the trees. You have entered into a fire recovery zone. This is a small view of the remnants of the Neola North Fire (which occurred in the Ashley National Forest, Utah, in 2007). We drove miles through burnt trees and scorched earth.
The beauty of Flaming Gorge reservoir is a relief to your eyes. Once you see the water, you long to rinse the pain from both your eyes and from the earth. Beauty shouldn't hurt.

And tomorrow? On to Yellowstone! My niece and nephews call it Jellystone... I wonder if we will see Yogi and BooBoo? 

11 comments:

Barb said...

Glad you are taking me along on your road-trip! You've seen such beautiful sights, and I like what you've written, too. Enjoy Yellowstone.

Ginny Hartzler said...

Two sad pictures, and one of strange beauty. Of course the last is my favorite.

Pat Tillett said...

Smarter than the average bear!
I love Yellowstone! Have a great time...

Kathy said...

Oh, I needed this vacation. Thanks for letting me tag along!

MadSnapper said...

the dog photo made me tear up. we have so many dogs here, we have an very high foreclousure rate here, thousands of home reposessed. the people just leave the animals roaming free and it breaks my heart.
thanks for that last photo of flaming gorge, it is so wonderful it made my heart sing and not hurt so much for the dog.

Banjo52 said...

"Beauty shouldn't hurt." A nicely huge statement we could discuss for weeks.

The dog resembles yours, at least a little. It is hard to see, hard not to collect them. What's to be done?

Pasadena Adjacent said...

This reminds me of the route taken on one of my early road trips. Like Banjo, I hadn't been back in years. So two years ago I repeated the Utah side of the trip and was so dismayed by the sheer amount of tourists. This may have to do with the low value of the dollar but I have to say, Utah was bombarded by Europeans on bus tours. And I've got news for you. They were as obnoxious as any American has ever been accused of while touring overseas.

Thérèse said...

A collection not easy to afford or to take care of...
Enjoy the place!

Anonymous said...

Yo! Can't believe you took the doll on the trip. Or maybe I can. Hope you're having a wonderful time.

Elaine said...

The long ribbon of road really says it when you're on a roadtrip. You've traveled through some beautiful country, and you'll see even more at Yellowstone. We were there last year, but later in the year, and it was snowing. We're off on our own roadtrip next week.

Brenda's Arizona said...

Yes, AH cousyn sister, Ms. Trolly is on the road with me. Today a took a photo of her at one of the Continental Divide signs. Just as I went to pick her up and put her back in my backpack, a woman came running out of her pickup truck. "Can I take a photo of your trolly, too? We lost our platypus..."

Elaine, where are you going on your trip? Can't wait to hear about it!

Oh, PA, the international tourists are FAR FAR more plentiful than the stateside ones. Pacific Rim tourists are the crowds now. Bus load up bus load...
and some tourists are such odd acting creatures...

Banjo, you would be pleased to know that we have gone 40 hours WITHOUT cell phone or internet ability! It was LOVELY to drive along and not see a single person talking on their cell while driving. Any drivers need to spend more time looking at the scenery and for bison!