the shoe tree …

… west of Delta, Utah, along Route 50.

a little prick …

… near Lake Sevier on the Utah-Nevada border. Beyond Lake Sevier is the Confusion Range.

 

more ouches …

… at Bob Scott Campground in Toiyabe-Humboldt National Forest just east of Austin, Nevada.

ouch …

… cactus in my campsite at the Bob Scott Campground in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest east of Austin, Nevada, on Route 50.

the storm …

Sometimes when you’re driving in the West, you see a thunderstorm. It’s far off, still nascent, an indistinct dark smudge on the horizon perhaps a hundred miles away.

In the East, you don’t see a storm so far ahead. That’s because you can’t see the fullness of the storm until it’s literally over your head. In the East, the sky is smaller — topography, tall buildings, and trees obscure the horizon.

In the West, you keep driving toward that still-small gray mass. You look to the side through the driver’s window and see blue sky dotted with puffy cumulus clouds. You look out the passenger window; you see the same pastoral placidity. There’s psychological comfort in those little white pearls floating in the blue sky beside you. But in front of you?

purple sea …

… along Route 50 west of Eureka, Nevada.

artifact …

… of a time in northern Nevada long, long ago, off Route 50 .

the queen and her court …

… along Route 50 east of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

storm …

… east of Eureka, Nevada, on Route 50, “the loneliest road in America.”