M. England

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The Road Home


The time had finally come, I was going home to Oregon. Unfortunately for me, I would need to make the drive twice and one of those times would be me alone. So I decided to make the detour through Nevada to see the Great Basin, National Park. I had three days, two for driving and one for exploring. For the most part on my driving days, I had no time to stop and explore since I had 12-14 hours of driving to do. One area though I couldn't resist. Somewhere in southern Utah, I came across a nearly dried up Salt Flat. Signs warned me before entering that it was still wet, but that could not be seen from a distance. I started to head out towards a shape on the horizon and quickly began to sink with every step. I soon realized the odd form was a long dead sheep that had gotten stuck. Realizing its grim fate, I turned around after snapping a few pics. 

For my exploring day in the park, I dismounted the trailer and headed up the winding road to see the ancient Bristlecone Pine trees. Again, I found myself in a National Park nearly by myself since I woke up early to start my day. This gave me the opportunity to walk amongst these old trees in solitude. Later I spent most the afternoon trying to make way to see Americas most magnificent limestone arch but walked away empty handed. After taking the three wrong turns to a dead end, sliding the truck backward down a loose rock hill, nearly getting stuck trying to cross a creek, then finally turning around after finding the right road to only realize it was too washed out for my little truck. Non the less, it was a great day of adventuring.