UTAH: A LAND OF ILLUSION

If I had to find the perfect phrase to describe Utah as seen from our motor home during a tour of the southern portion of that state, it would be deja vu.

Throughout our trip we had an uncanny, back-of-the-mind feeling that we had been there before. We hadn’t.

For both my husband, Bill, and me there was an eerie familiarity at seeing the delicate, Gothic-like spires of Bryce Canyon piercing the cloudy sky; an intimacy about having been previously awed by the towering white walls of Zion; the sensation of having followed the soaring red-rock spans of Arches National Park in some forgotten time.

Even after the closeness of 30-plus years of marriage, I hesitated mentioning the deja vu feeling. Ever since a modern-day Merlin told me that astrologically I was a witch in a previous life, Bill mercilessly teases me about my flying-broomstick prowess.

But he was the first to mention it.

On a clear, cold night, with the stars sprinkled in a midnight sky seemingly close enough to touch, we sat huddled under a blanket on the steps of our motor home, sipping spiked cups of hot tea.

“It feels like revisiting a wonderful vacation from your childhood, doesn’t it?” he asked, sending puffs of pipe smoke into the night.

And then, down-to-earth logician that he is, he calmly reasoned why the landscapes of Utah seemed so familiar to both of us. It wasn’t spooky at all. We’d simply seen them so often in the comfort of our living room, he pointed out.

Seeing poster and calendar art contributed to the familiarity. But we knew it more from films and TV. Of late, Dennis Weaver riding among the monoliths of Monument Valley in a commercial. And earlier movies that had Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy sitting atop one peak in “The Eiger Sanction.” Or earlier still, John Wayne riding shotgun through a spectacular backdrop on a stagecoach, or maybe Charlton Heston roaming a devastated lunar-like Earth in “Planet of the Apes.”

With such sensible observations, husband Bill put pf-f-t-t to my supposed psychic powers (again).

Many of the films shot here have also portrayed other states. With typical Hollywood switcherooie, Utah real estate has become sites in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, the Rio Grande in Texas, Mexico, a dozen biblical locales, deserts such as the Sahara, Gobi and Arabian, to say nothing of assorted alien planets in dozens of science-fiction films and TV episodes. Small wonder it looked familiar.

All of this adds much to the adventuring and exploring of this southern portion of the state. For an added treat, you might tote along a good movie quiz book with your AAA and Mobil Travel guides, Woodall and Rand McNally camping guides.

For movie buffs particularly, trivia about which film was shot at what location in Utah is a pleasant sidelight although not an overriding reason for a trip here.

We had done our homework and knew what was in Utah and what we had come to see--any or all of the five national parks: Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches. But this spectacular southern portion of the state has a way of sidetracking its visitors.

Along our entire planned route we were booby-trapped by dozens of optional ways to further explore these individual sites of enormous beauty, whether by foot, horseback, mule, four-wheel-drive Jeep, raft, kayak, even aloft by helicopter.

You can prepare for these better than we did by asking for a brochure from the state on tours and tour operators. You’ll also receive a good trail guide to each of the national parks so you can sensibly allot extra time to enjoy these in-depth explorations.

For us, these enticing booby-traps were unexpected pleasures.

One case in point: On a map an ordinary-looking little Utah 12 connects Bryce and Capitol Reef national parks. Be alerted: There is nothing ordinary about this road, particularly the last 32 miles between Boulder and Torrey. After 10 years of construction, this 32-mile section of road has finally just recently been opened to normal motor traffic. Before the opening it was a rough dirt road, impassable much of the time.

The name of the once remote plateau that the 32-mile drive crosses is Aquarius, and it climbs to 9,200 feet, majestically elevating the motorist and rewarding him with stupendous, sweeping vistas of Capitol Reef with its ever-changing buff, to orange, to red, to violet and purple shades, depending on the time of day.

Or to the east you’ll see the brooding, mysterious area known as Robber’s Roost, one-time hideaway of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. It’s still one of the least-explored areas of the United States.

The new drive over the Aquarius Plateau is not difficult: no cliff-hugging, no scary drop-offs to contend with. There is a 30 m.p.h. speed limit and one or two 10% grades to handle, but we motored through in a rented 29-foot motor home without incident. The speed limit is posted primarily because mule deer and stray steers abound.

Because of the photographic lures, you even begin to suspect that the state travel council has positioned cattle, cowpokes and assorted critters and varmints all along the route just to add local color.

Mountain Lakes

The deeply forested Boulder Mountain, which forms the heart of the plateau, also has 80 to 100 lakes tucked away here and there. We saw strands of quaking aspen form brilliant deep-yellow splashes against the dark green. When the winds bring the leaves down, it’s like driving through golden snow.

Even before reaching the newly opened Aquarius Plateau section, Utah 12 held many surprises. Soon after leaving Bryce Canyon, heading east through the little town of Tropic, (where actor-director and now Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood has shot several films), the road led through red-rock canyons and cut along a dazzling slick-rock mountain of sandstone, so brilliant at midday that it made a light meter go phlooey.

Magnificent will have to serve as an adjective, awesome having succumbed to teen-age overkill.

Still following Utah 12 from Escalante to Boulder, there’s a short, eye-popping, almost white-knuckle-drive named the Hog’s Back. In earlier days it was called the Devil’s (or Hell’s) Backbone and it thwarted road builders until 1935 when the town of Boulder was finally opened to motor traffic.

Suffice it to say, the 1,000-foot drops to the deep canyons command more attention than the spectacular scenery right and left. It’s definitely a park-and-look road rather than a “drive and try to catch a glimpse” raceway.

Exotic, Luring Names

Utah 12 and the Aquarius Plateau are only one of many sightseeing booby-traps that Utah dangles at visitors. Others include such exotic and luring names as Kodachrome Basin, Echo Cliffs, Hole-in-the-Rock, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Goblin Valley.

The latter appears after a circular tour route linking Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Aquarius Plateau and other top attractions. Suddenly, in the midst of a rather mediocre landscape you come upon Goblin Valley, 24 miles north of Hanksville off Utah 24.

Within this small, secluded basin are thousands of wind- and water-shaped rock formations that look like gigantic chocolate-covered mushrooms and, of course, goblins in every shape and size. Walking among them evokes an uneasy feeling of being on another planet, which explains why it’s been used for that purpose on several occasions for outer space films.

My favorite odd-sounding-name place was Dead Horse Point. This state park is becoming more and more known, especially among campers and RVers who have discovered its excellent campground. The 21 sites in this park are one of the best $7 overnights in the West.

It’s 24 miles off U.S. 163 just north of Moab (not your most convenient overnight campsite), and worth going twice that distance to camp or just to see. The view from the vista point edge, 2,000 feet above the Colorado River and the surrounding Canyonlands National Park, snowcapped Manti-La Sal mountains as a backdrop, easily rivals that of the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

Weathering a Storm

It was while camping here in our comfortable rented motor home that we learned another lesson about touring Utah: Don’t let weather spoil your trip.

We awoke one morning to heavy rain and fog and picked our way to the vista point for a final look before leaving the campground. The point has a large sheltered roof and we stood there for almost an hour, hypnotized by the scene played before us.

Storm clouds moved with stealth in and out of the canyons. Occasionally a beam of sunlight pierced the gray clouds and slowly illuminated a long canyon wall while heavy sheets of rain washed over adjacent cliffs.

The Maestro added thunder and, at unexpected moments, a flash of lightning to make sure He had your attention. It was a sight-and-sound spectacle on a panoramic scale, one tattooed forever in our memory banks.

We ran into similar weather at nearby Arches National Park where park rangers tell you that almost a mile of sandstone has been weathered away over a million years here, leaving the 90-plus arches and standing rocks in the park.

That was difficult to understand until another thunderstorm caught us huddled beneath Twin Arches for cover. Within minutes, miniature red-colored waterfalls were cascading down the rouged cheeks of the sculpted rocks in a dozen locations, their silt-laden waters grinding away at the rock like liquid sandpaper.

A Learning Experience

Utah can be a total learning experience if you allow it. Listening to the informative lectures and tour guides in the parks yields a mini-course in geology, history, nature.

Though I doubt I’ll ever get the Miocene and Pliocene ages right, I did learn the difference between a natural arch and a natural bridge, a mesa and a butte, and Indian pictographs and petroglyphs.

Down in the Navajo reservation in Monument Valley, which Utah shares with Arizona, I also learned from a Navajo weaver that it takes the wool from two sheep to make a typical rug and that she works in her hogan three to four hours a day for three months to complete one. Years ago these rugs sold for as little as $25. Now, like works of art, they sell for hundreds of dollars, deservedly.

Monument Valley has been used for more films and TV commercials than any other piece of Utah real estate, ever since John Ford powered a stagecoach through the landscape in 1939 with John Wayne, Claire Trevor, et al.

Filming Location

Ford and Wayne came back several times, both for films and pleasure. For the filming of “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” two cabins were built just for them at Goulding’s Trading Post, the venerable stopping place just opposite Monument Valley. Folks at Gouldings still talk in awe of the rousing parties held nightly in those two cabins.

The cabins are still there, and a family of four can stay in the John Wayne or John Ford cabin for about $60 a night. We decided to take a room (and hot baths) for the night rather than stay in our motor home, but found that Wayne’s cabin was occupied by a TV film crew from France. We took a $48-a-night room in the modern lodge just below the cabins and adjacent rustic dining room.

From our balcony we watched the setting sun bathe the pinnacles and spires in warm shades of yellow and gold and pink, and saluted the performance with glasses of chilled wine. Later, while walking back from the dining room past the Wayne cabin, we noted four bottles of wine cooling in buckets at the front door, lights blazing from the windows and hearty sounds of revelry coming from inside. Wayne and Ford would have approved.

For more information: Utah Travel Council, Council Hall/Capitol Hill, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114. Specifically ask for the latest “Tour Guide to Utah Packages and Products,” which lists all the four-wheel drive tours, pack trips, raft and kayak trips; also specific folders on Color Country, Castle Country, Canyonlands and Panoramaland, the four tourist areas in southern Utah.

For motor home and RV rental, we chose Let’s Go Motor Home Rentals, 56 E. 8000 South, Salt Lake City 84070, phone (801) 566-3921, and were satisfied. The Utah Tour Guide lists these others: AAA Motor Home Rentals, 12667 S. 300 East, Draper 84020, phone (801) 572-1902; B & E Rentals, 578 S. 450 East, Farmington 84025, phone (801) 451-2945; North Main Service & Rental, 284 N. Main, Moab 84532, phone (801) 259-5242; Associated Rental, 3262 Wall Ave., Ogden 84401, phone (801) 621-6341; Motor Sportland, 4001 S. State, Salt Lake City 84107, phone (801) 262-2921.