Showing posts with label Valley City Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valley City Road. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Edward Abbey - The Bard of Moab, Utah - 2009

 


Book jacket for hardcover edition of Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)

Edward Abbey - The Bard of Moab, Utah

As I first read author Edward Abbey's book, "Desert Solitaire - A Season in the Wilderness”, I loved both his writing style and his subject matter. In that book, his style was simple, direct and observational; yet personal, all at once. His subject was the old Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah.
 
With rye humor, he wrote about the animals, plants, hoodoos and summer tourists that populated the area around Devils Garden campground. It was there, as a mid 1950’s park ranger that Abbey lived for part of two seasons. His second season ended with a train trip home to the east coast that started at “Thompson” (Springs). Can one think of a more ignominious way to leave Canyonlands than at a railroad whistle-stop on a cold, rainy night?
 
That night, one Jeep with 4-wheels spinning, drove north of Moab on Valley City Road. With the heavy rain, mud flying from the wheels and the engine floored-out, the wipers swept across the windshield just fast enough to smear the red mud away. They were late to the station and flagging down a cross-country passenger train at Thompson was rare and dangerous. With no time to take the paved road, they continued northeast, their wheels barely touching the muddy ground.
The Book Cliffs, near Thompson Springs, in Grand Valley, Utah - Click for larger image 
The driver, squinting through the muddy glass, was sad to see his friend go. The other was heading east to a promised job and money. That need drove the man back home. At Arches, he had experienced the secrets of God’s creation. Later, he was to live in Oracle, Arizona. Between his birth and death, he liked to say that his life took him from Home to Oracle. Now he paid the stationmaster to stop the Zephyr and get him onboard.
 
Thompson Springs had no Fred Harvey restaurant or luxury hotel. It had one diner, one motel and one eternal wellspring of water, which accounts for half its name. Few passengers ever boarded a Union Pacific passenger train at Thompson Springs. The small stop was used mostly to ship cattle or Fruit to market. Situated half way between Green River, Utah and Grand Junction, Colorado, Thompson Springs could just as well have been half way to nowhere.
 
While the bearded man pressed five dollars into the stationmaster’s hand, the eastbound California Zephyr had already passed both sets of green lights. At that moment, no one on the train expected to stop at Thompson Springs.
Front entrance, the former Edward Abbey House, Moab, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.cxom) 
With throttles wide open, the eastbound Zephyr pulled the grade on approach to the old station. The thrum of the engine and the glare of the headlight shot through the night sky. With a touch of W.C. Fields ringing in his voice, the stationmaster declared, “Sir, there is no time to waste. You are leaving here on that train”. As a powerful wavering light filled the depot, the stationmaster realized that the train was about to pass them by. With one hand he shoved the five dollars deep into his pocket, and with the other he threw a lever, activating the red lights on the station platform.
 
Seeing red, the engineer of the Zephyr had no choice but to shut down the throttles and actuate the air-brakes in full emergency mode. As massive brake shoes applied friction to each steel wheel, the engine of the aluminum-clad streamliner shot past the passenger platform. Grinding, creaking, and then shuddering, the engine came to a halt in a cottonwood grove beyond the station. “Peace at last, peace at last”, was all that the U.P. engineer managed to say. Luckily, the train was comprised of ten cars, so Abbey could board the last car, which by then stood creaking at the far end of the platform. 
The Moab Rim, from the former Edward Abbey House on Spanish Valley Drive, Moab, UT - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) 
As a town, Thompson Springs survives to this day for only one reason, which is water. As strange as it may seem, at Thompson Springs there is free flowing water in the desert. Even now, residents can pull up to the town's water dispensing station and fill truck-mounted water tanks as needed. "Be sure to shut off the valve when you are done", reads a nearby sign. First used to support cattle and sheep ranching, the springs later made a reliable water-stop for steam locomotives. As Abbey so eloquently decried in Desert Solitaire, the West was changing. When his train departed Thompson Springs that rainy, autumn night, its gleaming silver locomotive no longer required water-stops. The diesel-electric motors powering its drive-wheels made Thompson Springs obsolete.
 
In Edward Abbey’s early writings, a prescient reader may spot evidence of both his inconsistencies and his growing discontent. A serial monogamist, Abbey married often and spent money freely on such icons of consumption as a red 1975 Eldorado Cadillac convertible. Like the pamphleteers of our early union, Abbey used his wit and his pen to wage metaphorical war against despoilers of the desert he loved.
Book Jacket from the hardcover edition of Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang" - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) 
First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire elevated Edward Abbey to celebrity status, especially in Moab and the Spanish Valley. In 1974, drawing on his proceeds, Abbey bought a home at 2260 Spanish Valley Drive. There, he reputedly wrote his breakthrough novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. I use the word “reputedly”, but not to impugn or malign the memories of Abbey’s family, friends and neighbors. Publication of The Monkey Wrench Gang occurred in 1975. Is it reasonable to assume that Edward Abbey could write, then have edited and published his opus in one year’s time?
 
Thirty years after his death, if we were to poll current Moab residents regarding Edward Abbey’s legacy, half would love him and half would revile him. If Abbey were to return today, his spirit might align more closely with those who hate him than with those who love him. Abbey was never one to take himself too seriously. His style of self-deprecating humor compares well to Will Rogers or Mark Twain.
 
The Abbey House, as locals call it, is currently on the market for under $300,000. Although the house and grounds need some repair, the current owner has done what she can to maintain a mid-century home with style and grace. The day I visited Abbey's Shrine, there were candles lit upon the mantle. The grounds and outbuildings may look like a Tennessee Williams stage set transported to the desert, but then again, one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.
Living room fireplace, the former Edward Abbey House, Moab, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) 
Whether new owners repair the house or tear it down, we hope that all future custodians of the property will conserve and retain its large stone fireplace. Local stone, chosen for its pattern, texture and color dominates the outdoor wall of the front entry. Inside, the opposite face of the same structure makes up the fireplace and living room wall. Hearkening back to a time when firewood heated most local homes, stone vents above the hearth circulate warm air into the room.
 
That hearth, as its heart, architecturally defines the Abbey House. If tomorrow, a tornado carried away every stick of the Abbey House, that stone fireplace would stand. Saving the heart of his former home would be monument enough to Edward Abbey, the iconoclastic author and onetime Bard of Moab.
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By James McGillis at 12:02 AM | | Comments (0) | Link

Friday, November 22, 2019

Nov. 2008 Oil & Gas Leases Threaten Arches National Park - 2008

Nov. 2008 Oil & Gas Leases Threaten Arches National Park

Watch the Video Here

On May 27, 2008, we jumped in the truck and drove north from Moab, Utah on Highway 191.  About four miles short of Crescent Junction, we departed the highway on the right and took the dirt road that heads of on a diagonal "Valley City Road" towards Thompson Springs, a small town where the steam trains of old found a reliable source of water for their boilers.  Although there are few descriptive road signs in the area, we had a Utah Atlas & Gazetteer which View from "Valley City Road" toward Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)indicated that "Valley City Road" connects to the Salt Valley Road, in turn leading to the little-used northeast entrance to Arches National Park.  Since as of this writing, there is no Google entry for the "Valley City Road, Grand County, Utah", perhaps this article will help create a search result for that road

 
 
As we drove from the parched bottom lands at the beginning of the road to its junction with the Arches main road, our elevation and the apparent water table rose steadily.  Soon, the temperature cooled and we saw grassland and wild flowers in bloom. 
 
Once inside Arches National Park, the first thing we saw was the road to Klondike Bluffs.  Having taken that road part way the previous autumn, I knew that our Nissan Titan did not have sufficient ground clearance for that trip.Jeeps "pulling the hill" atop the Klondike Trail at Klondike Bluffs in Arches National Park, Moab, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)
 
From end to end, the trip from Highway 191 to the Arches main road is about eighteen miles of well-graded dirt or gravel road.  On the Salt Valley Road, we saw only one motorcycle and one other four-wheel drive vehicle.  If you like to visit out-of-the-way places with unique and expansive views, Salt Valley is another “must see” while in the Moab area.  With no development or litter along the road, you will find a near-wilderness experience that is accessible by truck or SUV.
 
Edward Abbey spent six months at Arches in the mid 1950s, when it was a remote and little-visited national monument.  Residing in a trailer near the campground at the end of the Arches main road, Abbey studied and wrote extensively about the fauna, flora and geology of the Salt The Klondike Bluffs at Arches National Park, Moab, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Valley in his classic book, “Desert Solitaire”, first published in 1967.  Over forty years later, essentially nothing has changed in Salt Valley.  Let us hope that the BLM keeps possible mineral and oil exploration at bay for at least another forty years.
 
Once we were back on the paved road, we proceeded to the “Devils Garden” area at the end of the road.  Devils Garden, a mixed juniper and piƱon forest, contains most of the red rock formations in the park.  It features an easy and well-maintained trail that leads to many of the park’s spectacular natural arches, including Landscape Arch, with a span of almost 300 feet.
 
If you like to see animals in clouds or rock formations, there is no place "Elephant Rock" at the Hoodoos, Devils Garden, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)like Devils Garden to find your rock-bound spirit friends.  Some are in plain sight and others show up only when you review your pictures, back at camp.  Either way, this area that Abbey referred to as the hoodoos offers great views in all directions, including the Book Cliffs to the North and the La Sal Mountains to the east.
 
Most visitors to Arches National Park enter at the Main Entrance on Highway 191, just north of Moab.  After stopping at every natural wonder along the road, by the time they reach Devils Garden, often they have “seen enough” of the Arches.  If so, they tend to use the return trip as an opportunity to speed back to the entrance as fast as possible.  In “Desert Solitaire”, Abbey tells a story about a visitor who asks:
Landscape Arch in full sunlight, Devils Garden Trail, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) 
“Well how the hell do we get out of here?”
“You just got here, sir.”
“I know, but how do we get out?”
“Same way you came in.  It’s a dead-end road.”
“So we see the same scenery twice?”
“It looks better going out”.
 

By James McGillis at 08:49 PM | Environment | Comments (1) | Link