The Painted Desert Loop: Day 6, the last leg

 


The above picture petty well sums up our last day on the road. It wasn't actually snowing much but there had been a good snowfall over night. Highway 89 is called the highway of the national parks, and it does take you near or through the parks from Grand Canyon to Glacier. We have visited Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce and the snowy roads made those side trips unattractive.




The purpose of our trip was to explore some less frequently visited sites, not the most crowded, so we followed the urge to get home quickly. It was encouraging to see so much snow accumulation. Central Utah, like much of the west, has been suffering from drought and it looks like they may get some relief this summer.



Maybe the biggest surprise of the trip happened when we drove by our old hometown of Sigurd where we lived from 1997 to 2013. In the early 2000's a company was issued permits to build a coal-fired power plant there. It was never built, due to a combination of impracticality and local opposition, but it did generate a lot of controversy. In an early battle of the culture war, the opponents of green energy put up billboards deriding wind and solar power and promoted the importance of coal. Imagine our surprise when we saw a massive array of solar panels right next to the site of the proposed powerplant! I think it goes to show how much of the culture war is just talk to rile up the right wing. The people who are investing are investing in progress.

I'm sorry all I had to offer in this post was pictures of snow. I hope you enjoyed the ride anyway. If you did, you may enjoy some of my other posts on travelingoldtrails.blogspot.com. Ciao!

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