Utah
Utah was one of the most beautiful states we drove through—next to Colorado. Driving through Utah was freaky in a way, because we often felt as if we were driving in the middle of a giant, cavernous nowhereland in which gas stations, rest areas, and hospitals were invisible or nonexistant for vast miles outside of Salt Lake City. The landscape was beautiful but hostile.
Layton, just north of Ogden and Salt Lake City, was our first overnight stop. We stayed in a nice but poorly air-conditioned Hampton Inn that took pets, and got a free breakfast the next morning. The people of Layton were oddly monochromatic—everyone we encountered seemed to be cut from the same cookie cutter. Nevertheless, they were all friendly and hospitable.
Photos (and especially ours) couldn't possibly do the rugged and earthy beauty of Utah justice. Hopefully, some of these literally window's-view photos give some shade of an idea of how beautiful Utah's geography is. This is a photo of Deb walking Pootie outside our motel, with the gorgeous mountains in the background.
Here's one of those out-the-window shots of the rugged "Red Rocks":
This is one of Deb's pictures of the red desert:
And below is another window's eye view of Utah's red canyons:
