Two Green Girls on the Road

Day 18, Arches National Park to Denver

Use the handy map here to follow Mary Logan's path and view her favorite snapshots.

Yesterday Trish and I were Thelma and Louise. We didn't shoot anybody, and we didn't nosedive the Volvo into the Grand Canyon. But we did visit two towns where the movie was filmed.

It does not rain much in Moab, Utah--usually less than an inch in all of August. But it rained all night while we were there, watering the poor, dry cottonwoods at our creekside campsite and really mucking up our plans for sunrise photos of glowing red and purple rocks. We did the speed tour through Arches National Park in the morning, which means that we ran up the half-mile trail to relax and enjoy the silence for two minutes and then snap photos of us holding the Delicate Arch on top of our heads.

After our first Thelma and Louise town, we took the scenic highway along the Colorado River to Cisco, Utah, a real ghost town. Apparently, Cisco was once the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the state, and new oilrigs were put in as late as 2005. With crumbling old buildings, no modern structures (except the rigs), businesses all boarded up, and some suspiciously recent models of Ford trucks hanging around, we decided this was one place where we were glad we were in a hurry. It did make me think though: What a shame to have a whole town with an existing infrastructure--though crumbly--right near the glorious red rocks of Arches and the Colorado River that's not being used, except by ghosts and possibly some criminals on the run. That's why I've decided to rehabilitate Cisco and name Trish the mayor.

As we headed into the Denver area after a long drive of singing harmonies in gibberish (there's only so much on the iPod), we stopped at the National Geographic Maps Division in Evergreen for a visit with Michelle Wilkinson. These guys are the ones who set us up with the cool GeoStory Player that allows you to view the photos and map of this trip. There, we watched cartographers work on new maps, saw the sheer amount of maps NG produces, learned about the eco-friendly packaging of the new TOPO! Explorer software, and were treated to two trail maps of the Denver area, which we plan to promptly put to use.

We also deliberately blew the budget a second time, and we are blaming it on my birthday. James Taylor was playing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, arguably the best music venue in the world, and we were driving right by it. So somehow we ended up with our Denver host (a friend I met last year in France) sitting in the rain, under our tent ground tarp, in the red-rocked natural amphitheater with acoustics and an environment better than any manmade architecture.

Money spent: Less than $15, were it not for the $150 we spent on three James Taylor tickets (Mom's birthday treat)
Gas price: Less than $4.00 all over Colorado!
Highlight: The out-of-our-budget music experience in a natural setting, of course
Lowlight: Since when does it rain in the desert?
Mood: Chipper

© The Green Guide, 2008

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