It was hard to leave Salt Lake City. We were having such a great time there and the people were so unbelievably pleasant in a “we might drink the punch someday” kind of way but nice nonetheless. We hung out in the lobby of the hotel playing games and then began our continued journey south. It was strange not to be going west any longer. Not twenty minutes outside of the city we came across a museum called Xango’s “Musuem of Ancient Life”. It looked like it would be very fun and Marley and Cole asked if we could go. I warned them that it was possible that this was a “creationist” museum and it could have a timeline that would have Flintstone-esque exhibits of men using Brontosaurus to pull their carts across the desert. They said that it would be fun to see such an exhibit because they have no experience with "creationism as science".
The great thing about such unused land is that all new developments can get really big and creative. The town of Thanksgiving, Utah was just such a place for this amazing use of land in building an enormous complex such as Xango. This museum exceeded my expectations and was filled with lots of children excitedly enjoying the hands-on scientifically progressive fun. My guess was that the government might have given a grant to the town of Thanksgiving to help educate the locals. The United States government's interest of course is to keep all dogmatic ignorance of the world to a minimum in case they vote for a president that is someone similar to them. I discovered that most museums in Utah charge a bare minimum to enter and most are free. The planetarium in Salt Lake City is very progressive too. (The FLDS, for example, does not believe that man ever went to the moon and that it's the government's ruse to try and lure people to the secular world. They, however, practice a strict form of communism and an almost Sha'ria kind of law with their community that is almost impossible to escape from unless you want to lose your children or parents).
Afterward we headed south along a lonely I-15 with the other out-of-staters. The monsoon season is active now in the southwest and the darkness remained to our east as we traveled the long drive to Zion National Park. The winds were wicked however and I was driving against the strongest gusts I have ever driven in! I felt like the wind was going to pick us up and toss us. The wind was dry as bone and hot, nothing like the humid changes that happen on the east coast. Because of the friction of all the sand in the air, the lightening was fierce and was crackling all around us. We now were in a narrow “nice day” corridor. It was bizarre. I have never experienced anything like it. We took pictures of a large “dust devil” that looked as if it might transform into a tornado. It never did but perhaps for a few moments when it might have been an F-1. Back in Salt Lake City they would receive a record amount of rainfall in a 10 minute period.
A huge bolt hit a pine forest near us and a tree went on fire spewing light grey smoke and then all the trees around it lit up quickly. It was amazing. This is the natural process of forest revitalization and we were seeing it firsthand. It was fabulous to witness it! We could keep the view of the burgeoning fire for about 20 miles.
We arrived in Cedar City at dinnertime and decided to go into town. This was the beginning of "polygamous country". We needed to pop in to the Wal-Mart and it was the most mutli-cultural I have seen since Chicago! However, it had been since Milwaukee since we have seen anyone of African-American descent. It was refreshing to see so many cultures but I wondered how many of them were in-transit like us. Utah is incredibly homogeneous and there are lots of blond and blue eyed smiling faces.
Heading east along the secondary routes toward Zion National Park, the landscape changed dramatically. Once under a vast inland ocean (the Great Salt Lake is the last salty remnant of that vast ocean evaporating away since it has no other outlet), the new mountains around us were created through erosion and gravity pulling the once raised land downward as the ocean retreated. The result is exposed red Navajo sandstone from the beds of that long-ago ocean. It is impressive. The land is also home to many of the animals that exist in Yellowstone and we were treated to seeing a herd of horned sheep climbing a cliff.
The hotel was directly sitting outside the gates of Zion National park and was simply the most perfect setting I have ever seen. For a mere $98.00 a night, we were treated to the beauty and culture of Springdale, Utah and all the benefits that come from being so close to the park. Sitting in the pool area, we enjoyed the sunsets, the Austrians, the Germans and the plethora of French-Canadians. It seems that Americans aren’t interested in touring the country in August. That night there would be a wicked storm that would rattle us all night long with overactive lightening and booming thunder. It was very unusual for Utah I would learn.
The next day we toured Zion National Park. It was so lovely and peaceful. We had a wonderful afternoon touring the park after the heat of the day (110F) and taking pictures of the gorgeous geologic formations. We went through a mile long tunnel carved into the rock and took pictures of big horned sheep. It was a great day that could really only be expressed in pictures.
In Springdale I met an interesting ex-Mormon woman who worked at a bar in town. There was an ale company ‘Pologamy Porter Brew’ “Why have just one?” it says, “Bring some home to the wives!” (There is also another beer called 'Evolution Brew'). She told me that non-Mormons in Utah love to spear the religious Mormons in Utah…it’s their way of getting revenge on not being in the majority and being voted out every time during an election. We had a long talk outside on the deck. She was fascinating.
She was raised in a strict Mormon family. When she was 11 years old she had to make a baptism for non-Mormons where she was their “conduit” to heaven. She told me it was then that she realized that this could not be divinely inspired. She was told to convert Jews and was given names of people who died in the holocaust (I told you so...!). She didn’t think that was right at all and couldn't imagine why God wouldn't love all His people even if they weren't Mormon. She told me that now that she is adult she worries about the women and children living in Hildale and Colorado City; the polygamous compounds. She said that sometimes the men will bring their wives to the bar to have pizza and share a round of…’Polygamy Porter Brew’ of all things!!!! She said they get a kick out of it (it is against their religion to drink). The picture below is the logo for the beer.
She told me how she helped to fund a sign that would help abused women on the compound. She said that the men tore it down. I asked her about going to the compounds and she said that business there has never been better since the HBO show ‘Big Love’ has opened their lifestyle to the world. She said that she felt so bad for the women as they are given away to be “married” at about 12 years old regardless how much their mothers wanted to keep them and then they are impregnated as quickly as possible to avoid anyone else trying to marry them. The mothers have no way of escape as their children do not belong to them and they would never leave their brood of about 8 children on average. They also know no other life although they are miserably depressed, suicidal, and often malnourished.
That was it, I had to see it for myself. The next morning I asked Marley if she would be interested (Cole could care less) and she was very eager to see the compound. I had asked the woman from the bar if it was safe to travel through and she told me that many people do it now and they even have opened restaurants to the public. We went a bit west and then south through ‘The Strip’ which is an area of land north of the Grand Canyon and south of Zion National Park which makes it hard to get to and very hot. Living a polygamous lifestyle requires that it be isolated. Driving into Hildale we would see the first of the compound. This picture is of Hildale taken during the drive. Most houses remain unfinished so they don't have to pay taxes on a house that is under construction. Also, they need to constantly add more rooms for the newer wives and children.
Marley needed something in a drug store so we stopped, only this was like no other drug store we’d ever seen. The women were coming and going very hurriedly but silently. They reminded me of the prairie version of Carmelite nuns. (To the right is a picture of a richer wife on the balcony of a 4 story house just outside the pharmacy). They looked only at the ground (it would be forbidden to speak to us), they didn’t speak to one another and spoke to their children in hushed and “sweet” tones. The shelves were almost completely empty apart from having one of everything to cure a cold. That was it! The women looked like they would jump out of their skin if you clapped your hands. It was very unnerving. They were almost anorexic looking and pale as if the sun never touched their skin. They wore their prairie dresses and their hair as high as they could spray it above their heads. These were such sad women. They were nothing like the religious sect of the Amish where the women were strong, sun kissed, and were valued by their husbands in monogamous relationships. Amish women could be seen chatting and laughing with one another, disciplining children and picking vegetables in their gardens barefoot. I began to appreciate the Amish women!!! These Mormons were shades of real women…like ghosts.
We went to get gas and the polygamous boy attendant was thrilled to meet someone outside of the compound. He was overly solicitous to Marley which made her laugh to herself. He wore the typical long sleeved Western shirt tucked in with jeans and a belt. Under all those clothes he wore his “purity” long-johns. He must have been very hot I thought. The men all around the gas station were looking at Marley (and even me!) in a way I hadn't thought of before coming here. All women are possibilities to them and since they weren't faithful to just one woman, they were each like a "rooster in a hen house". I have never seen married men be so flirtatious or leering. It was creepy.
We ate in a beautiful little café run by unmarried girls. They were really lovely and so unlike their mothers. It made me cringe to think of their futures but I also thought that perhaps these girls were of a different sect as they didn’t wear a single French braid, they wore a bit of makeup and they had vibrant PERSONALITIES (they reminded me of Orthodox Jewish girls I have seen). The cafe had an interesting mural on the cafe wall shown here of polygamist women preparing a meal using the "bounty of the land". It's eerie and beautiful at the same time. You can see the polygamist men here enjoying themselves. I would like to see their seven or more wives enjoying themselves too.
Polygamist men were coming and going at the café and then two groups of tourists came in…one from England and the other was passing through. One polygamist father came in with a teen son and they sat down and enjoyed a great meal together laughing and joking. It was such a contrast between them and their wives/mothers that I saw at the drug store. It was so bewildering as it felt more like being in Taliban run Afganistan as it was a man’s world here and the women were concealed in bizarre clothing, locked away at home, and silent. It was outrageous!!!
We drove into the haven of Colorado City where most polygamists escape Hildale to avoid the law and go back and forth between the two towns as one is in Utah and the other in Arizona. The compounds were far wealthier than I imagined! One reason is that if you have 10 wives, you are getting 10 government checks for the “unwed” wives and more for the “fatherless” children. It is easy to have a comfortable living with all those checks especially if the women aren’t allowed to use it for themselves or their children. Their money is under the sole discretion of the male of the household and his first wife.
That morning I had read in the newspaper that ninety-eight Mexican illegals were arrested that day and deported because having sex with underage girls and other unlawful activities. Utah is a strange place. The woman in Springdale explained that many Mormons don’t want to prosecute the polygamists because it was part of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young’s doctrine and it would be like professing they were wrong. They aren’t outraged about anything really…other than Mexican illegals. This seems like a lot of misplaced anger.
We left the polygamists behind for good and traveled east although my heart was breaking for the women I saw. We traveled through a Paiute Reservation and then up through the town of Kanab, Utah which is where all Western movies in the 1950’s and 60’s were filmed! I cheered up immediately as it was such a treat to see the town! The whole place looked like a resting spot for actors of the time period with elegant old motels, diners, and movie theaters playing FREE Western movies all day long. The town calls itself the “Western Hollywood”. I only wished I had more time to walk around Kanab!
We drove north and then south again to see the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park! This was quite an unexpected treat! The sand dunes are surreal and I thought they looked like a tangerine swirly-scape. It was such a weird feature out in the middle of nowhere. I was glad now that we took the detour to the compounds as we didn’t plan this part of the trip and everything was a surprise! Below is a picture of the dunes. To the left is the best representation of the color of the coral sand that I could find. I needed to go into the shade to capture it correctly. It almost looks edible!
We traveled north again for hours and finally came to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was glorious and cool at 7,777 ft above sea level. We walked into the canyon about half-way down until Marley’s knee started to bother her. We hiked up in the thin air and then walked along a trail for a bit. It was a great way to spend the late afternoon. We still had 3 hours to go until we found our hotel in Hanksville, Utah, so we left and again my GPS told me to go another route than I had planned. I took it’s advice and it brought me along the loneliest and most deserted road I have taken since the trip. We were ALONE for a hundred miles through a road that is literally in a black lava canyon. The name of the canyon is “Black Canyon”…of course. It wound along a stream and the wildflowers and animal life were so abundant. It was a pleasure to travel so long with such independence. We stopped in Koosharem (note: Koos Harem…I wonder who Koos was?) and we rested before traveling up along the Awapa Plateau. This was a climb to about 8,900 ft and we all started to get headaches. There was still two hours left and we didn’t think we’d make it!
Finally we reached Capitol Reef National Park and it was here, at sunset, that I saw the most unique and unpopulated of all the parks so far. This was a glorious park with the most unique land features. The eroded mountains looked like they had “Capitol Columns” and then the whole of the park went from red stones to white. There was a gorgeous little apple orchard in the narrow canyon called “Fruita” (I thought it was pronounced Fru-ita but no...it's not as nice as that...it's Fruit-a). We then saw petroglyphs on the wall from the ancient Fremont peoples. We traveled along until the landscape changed again to the Luna Mesa where the entirety of the landscape was like being on the moon. Then it changed again to “Cathedral Vally” where a large formation looked exactly like a huge medieval cathedral as shown below. It was thrilling!!! And most importantly, it was sunset and the colors were enchanting us all. Capitol Reef is so underplayed that most people miss it and yet it was one of the most thrilling scenery I have ever seen. The pictures below were taken over 40 minutes on about 30 miles of road; major geologic variations!
We pulled in to Hanksville to a depressing old motel to sleep. Our motel window had a curious bullet hole in the window…not good. We were so tired though that it didn’t matter. The evening rush hour in Hanksville is around 8 pm when all the boaters come back from Lake Powell sunburned and tired. They were a rowdy bunch!
We drove along the southeast corner of Utah, past the most sun-baked part of the state and the most variable. We went through canyons, desert, and Juniper forests all in the space of 2 hours. The worst part was having to drive down an impossible dirt road clinging to the side of an enormous mesa. The road was a 10% grade descending down from about 2,000 feet up. It was ridiculously scary with no guard rails! I was as nervous as a squirrel! We all were! To the left is a picture from the top of the mesa looking down. That gray small line is THE ROAD WE WERE GOING TO BE ON AT THE BOTTOM!!!! I get chills just looking at the PICTURE of it!
Coming into the valley, we were shocked to see the GPS telling us that there was only 5 minutes left until we arrived at our sleepover destination of Mexican Hat, Utah. There was NOTHING as far as the eye could see! Where was this elusive town? We came down through a small hill into a disappearing depression in the earth and there was the sentinel formation called “Mexican Hat”. Here is a picture of it. It looks like a man sitting with a sombrero on wearing a poncho.
We followed the San Juan River to the San Juan Inn where we had lunch with people from England and France. There were no others as has been the theme all during the “nature” part of the trip. I spoke to the French family in my elementary French and they were so kind and courteous as all French people that I have ever personally met are. Having spent 3 weeks in France in 2007 gave me an even better impression of France. We discussed the fact that the innkeeper would not give us our room keys until 3 pm; not 2:50, not 2:58, but 3 pm. It was blistering hot outside and we harassed her at the front desk until it was time. It was great revenge to make fun of her with the Parisian French family en francais! The river is muddy as soup and there are thousands of flies everywhere along the river. We watched an enormous lizard gobble up dozens of flies from along the little wall near the chairs. It was over 100F in the shade which is only great weather for lizards and flies.
I sent Cole to get the password for the internet as the innkeeper cannot do two things at once, like answer the phone and wait on a customer. He returned with a ridiculous password that made us all laugh. The control-freak innkeeper insisted that he return with the password to the main office because of course there are cyber-pirates lurking behind the cacti. So, although she may be tickled to have all this “enormous power” over her guests in the remote and lost Utah desert, I will do her one better; If you’re ever at the San Juan Inn in Mexican Hat, Utah, the internet password is 4971716728.
I would leave Utah with more questions than answers about this state full of wonders and contradictions. I was looking forward to returning someday to see some sights I missed and hopefully to a Utah that exerts justice for women and children even if they are under the control of a corrupt religious system that imprisons and abuses them. There isn't just a moral war to be fought, it's a human rights issue even if the rest of the country doesn't understand it and it's right here in beautiful Utah. In the meantime, I picked up two six-packs...like many other progressive Utahans, it's the only revenge I could think of!
Fantastic, as always! Love that you posted the internet password for San Juan Inn. Hilarious!
ReplyDeletePolygamy Porter! Too much!
What an odd state Utah is.
My heart does ache for those 12-year-old girls being married off. Sickening. Just sickening.
Safe, happy travels, folks!
Xo~
Nikki