h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Southeast Utah Desert: Early May

It is about 600 square miles of desert valley uplifted 6,000 feet. Twenty miles of empty dirt road winds though the valley past the strange spires.

This is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. Camping is permitted anywhere you can find a spot to pull off the dirt road. Light pollution doesn't exist here. There are no small towns within a 100 miles and the valley is surrounded by 7,000 foot bluffs and mesas.

In two days there will be a new moon. We'll find a spot to camp near a mesa and listen to the coyotes talk to each other.

At 4 AM the Navigator's Triangle (Deneb, Vega and Altair) is directly overhead this time of year. The Milky Way burns a gossamer silver swath across the sky though the middle of the triangle. The Navajos think that it is very bad luck to try to count the stars. It's hard to imagine all this springing from a point smaller than an atom at the moment of the Big Bang. Trouble is that none of the other explanations seem very credible either....Just an ant wandering the inside of an empty can trying to grasp what it all means...We need bigger brains.

So. the evening of May 3rd, we'll be out here alone, in the inky black night, ten miles from the nearest road and thirty from the nearest electric light or human habitation.

This place is not well known or widely publicized. Only one of my maps even shows that it exists. It's a lovely, lonely desert. Right now the desert is blooming with wildflowers and greenery from the spring snow melt.

Here are a few pictures of the Valley.
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/valley-of-gods.html

What wonderful pictures. Thank you for sharing them with us

Cosmic-sized atom, dude. My theory is of a sentient black hole, sucking up the matter from one universe and pooting it out into another.

Please let us know how the coyote chorale goes. I'm glad that desert valley is not a touristy circus, that cheapens it automatically. On the other hand, the snobby types might consider it a failed Grand Canyon.

Desert springtime is magical. I miss it... it's easy to miss, there and gone in a matter of days, it seems. I used to really enjoy the mixture of fragrances, there's not really anything like it. And the totally unexpected blanket of color on the normally greyish reddish brownish landscape.

Loved the pictures. Enjoy your desert sojourn.
Lady C.