Route 666

One of the most exciting parts of my road trip in the Southwest was the drive on Route 666 (which was renamed to US 491 too avoid the obvious connotation).  I took this route on my way from Farmington, NM to Cortex, CO.  The highway took me through the vast landscape of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

 Distances are long in this part of the country, but this road seemed particularly flat 

and endless.  The speed limit was 75 mph, but it hardly felt like I was moving

It was a about a 3-hour drive to get to Cortez and by the time I got there I was exhausted.  It wasn't the drive that was tiring, but the experience of being in the presence of the immense rock formations and feeling so small and vulnerable.

I arrived in Cortez in the early afternoon.  I had planned to do a hike, but ended up laying in bed at my hotel.  I needed to bring everything down to my scale again.

While I lay huddled up in my room this is what I wrote:


"Its very emotional to see this landscape.  The Ute pueblo was just amazing.  Its almost scary being in those kinds of wide-open spaces.  I am not used to that  kind of vast emptiness that is sporadically inhabited by these massive rocks.  I almost feel like I am lost at sea and have no way to ground myself. For some reason I keep having an images of being on the Titanic when it is  sinking. The horror of being a tiny being on a huge structure that is being consumed by a massive ocean is terrifying for me to comprehend.   Its hard to explain, but it is very overwhelming to be in the physical presence of this majesty.  It is something that can't be felt or understood from a photograph. It's a truly physical experience that happens in relation to these objects."