Rattlesnake Speedway In The Utah Desert

Part 1

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 Entry #95

Driving on highways cut through mountains is a breathtaking experience. The views from my windshield and various overlook stops as I cruised from Nevada to Utah were just what I was expecting, except my emotional reaction was even more than I had allowed for. I was in awe for multiple miles at a time. I grew up in a skiing family, so my paradigm for mountain beauty was always the dreamlike, pristine, snow-capped version. I was less familiar with the dry, rugged, red-rocked desert mountain vistas. Here, some of the former were visible, but it was a whole lot of the later. A number of years ago, I spent a week camping on the bottom of an Arizona canyon, complete with waterfall oases and wild vineyards. Soon I acclimated to this different kind of majesty, and now I was definitely all in.

There were moments in Utah that felt like I was traveling on the moon.

Included in my various posts as I made my way to California, are some essays about Bruce Springsteen’s own various road trips in the same territory (see Entry #77 and Entry #78). Springsteen also had a road “experience” (as distinct from a “road trip” in that for this one he first flew to his driving destination instead of making the entire trip by car) in these exact states I am now traversing, Nevada and Utah.

The year was 1977, and the trip was the brainstorm of photographer Eric Meola, who took the iconic Born To Run album cover photograph of Springsteen literally leaning on his friend and bandmate Clarence Clemons. Meola thought that Springsteen and his best buddy Steven Van Zandt traveling through the “badlands” (also the name of one of Springsteen’s new songs) of the desert west could provide pictorial moments appropriate for Springsteen’s then upcoming (now classic) album Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

The trio flew to Salt Lake City, rented a red convertible, and took off. Besides photographs, the trip gave Springsteen the backdrop for another new song, “Promised Land.” (see Entry #83). The line from the song that I chose for the title of this post, “Rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert” couldn’t have been more apt as the pictures from this day of my own present-day trip reveals. Meola recalls that Springsteen “wanted to take every single side road that we could.” On one those excursions, the group found the Valmy Auto Court which was a Shell gas station, a Greyhound bus station, a general store, and a post office all in one building. The owner of the enterprise had been appointed the town’s postmaster by President Franklin Roosevelt. Springsteen was taken by this roadside attraction, and posed for a picture by the front door.

That photograph was eventually used several years later for a special EP release of Springsteen’s 1981 single “The River,” along with two of his most famous earlier songs. The family of Valmy Auto Court’s owner still has a signed copy Springsteen sent to the store.

In 2017, The Salt Lake Tribune published a retrospective story on the 40th anniversary of Springsteen’s desert adventure. After describing the stop at the store, the article continues:

“The evening wasn’t over for Springsteen. Meola said Springsteen had the threesome driving 34 hours with only a few roadside stops. “He’s got a song called ‘Drive All Night,” Meola said, “It’s literal for him.” At one point, the three parked during the night on Main Street in Elko. Springsteen and Van Zandt stretched out in the car to sleep, Meola slept on the hood. There were dogs howling. Meola said it gave Springsteen the chorus for “The Promised Land” which goes “The dogs on Main Street howl ‘cause they understand…”

I will come back to the Springsteen journey, but in the present, I was in for a great experience myself. My first major stop in Utah was in Zion National Park’s Kolub Canyon, a place I had never visited before. I got a map at the visitor’s center, and picked one of the trails for a hike.

I picked a good one, wow!

I stayed in this spot for a very long time. I couldn’t get enough of marveling at that vast and seemingly endless view. I was, as they say, completely at peace. It was a gorgeous day and I met a few fellow sojourners. Eventually, I reluctantly hiked back to the parking lot, transformed, at least a little, for the better.

To Be Continued

Day 9