Cash Chronicles is coming to you from the mountains of southern Utah this week. Recent personal financial developments and the pandemic have forced me to get creative in terms of my only vacation this year. This made it look like the right time to explore some areas of the Western US that I had missed in previous travels.
One of the things some of us as Americans take for granted is the vastness of the country we live in. Flying over it doesn’t give you the same appreciation. Once you drive it you get a first hand sense of the places that are essentially empty in much of the middle of the country. Our media and general cultural narrative tends to be dominated by the coasts but the pace and the priorities of people living in rural places is always a good contrast for those of us from large cities who think the world revolves around our livelihoods.
Many of us from larger cities have also travelled overseas but I have found that even many of the Americans who have traveled overseas are lacking in their travel around the US. This keeps them for having a more thorough appreciation for the differences between people and cultures within the US.
To assist with my perspective on these matters, I am joined in this week long journey by a friend of mine who, although he now lives in LA, grew up on a farm in a small town in the Northwest. His input and perspective on matters of the outdoors and rural life has proved invaluable. His personal situation growing up has also proved useful here in Utah.
Mormon Country
I have been coming to the West to visit family since I was 10 years old but I also made the decision to go to school in the Northwest. This provided my first real experiences with Mormons other than a few brave missionaries I had seen around the neighborhood growing up.
Utah is known as a place primarily settled by Mormons but many people don’t realize that there are large pockets of Mormon communities in states that surround Utah as well. Washington State, Idaho, Arizona and Oregon all host smaller Mormon communities and some, like the one we are camping near now, even host some of the fundamentalist sects of Mormonism that still practice polygamy.
There’s nothing wrong with people practicing a different religion but the particularities of Mormonism create some extra planning requirements if you are planning on visiting this part of the country.
As noted by the ranch owner where we are staying, Roy, a native of San Diego, if you want to have beer while camping here, it requires some advanced preparation. The state tends to limit the alcohol content of beer that is sold in convenience stores. Typical beer has around 5% alcohol content, so the state limits the alcohol content of beer sold at these convenience stores to 3.5% to 4% alcohol. As my friend puts it, this means the only effect the beer has on you is to add calories. The effects of being intoxicated don’t really appear for this type of beer, which are the effects many drinkers are looking for.
The result is that if you want to purchase “real beer” and are located in or around Roy’s ranch located near Bryce Canyon Utah, it would require a 4 hour drive to get it.
Other interesting revelations Roy shared with us included the fact that he was still considered an “outsider” despite the fact that he had been living in the area for about 25 years. “I think they consider you a local after 40 years” he said. As for the current culture clash, he mentioned that he gets a begrudging respect from the older generation here for “toughing it out” in a harsh climate that see’s temperatures over 100 degrees in the summer and -16 in the winter. He noted it’s the younger millennia generation, steeped in the rural/city, liberal/conservative cultural divide that harbors a sense of tension or resentment with him, but he manages nonetheless.
Extreme Weather
The other takeaway from our first few days here is the extreme heat we are experiencing. Our first few days were spent hiking into the Water Canyon trail at the base of the Canaan Wilderness which lies south of Zion National Park. Temperatures regularly reached into the 110’s while we hiked during the day and remained in the high 90’s even at midnight. The only respite was around 3am to 6am when the temperatures dipped to around 70 degrees or so. This was a challenge to deal with for both sleep and our hiking into the wilderness during the day.
The plateau where we find ourselves now provides us with some respite from this type of weather. Although temperatures reach into the 100’s during the day when the sun goes down temperatures then dip into the 50’s and 60’s which requires some extra clothing for the morning.
We are off to hike Bryce Canyon next, holing to be smarter about our timing so as not to get caught in the heat midday. If you haven’t been to this part of the US, it’s well worth the experience, even during the extreme summer months, to get a sense of the extreme natural beauty and different lifestyle of those who inhabit this area.
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