utah 2008 - the drive home

I drove back from my annual trip to Utah and arrived home last Friday to attend a wedding last night. The drive on I-70 was amazing. I wish I had brought a better camera to capture the scenery. Here are some photos taken with my HP Photosmart M22. It is a great little camera for these trips because it is durable, weather resistant, small and inexpensive in case something should ever happen to it on these trips. Here is a video of the landscape just west of the San Rafeal Reef.

utah flood

On the last day of our trip, it rained. We hid in the back of the car to try to wait it out, but when the rain kept going, we decided to pack up and leave.

It didn't rain so much where we were shooting, but enough in the mountains so that the road was flooded out. The videos show the jagged curve in the road caused by the water. On the other side of the road, the water was pooling and as the water receded, the ravine on the right side of the video revealed itself. We ended up digging trenches and packing the tracks down for the wheels of the car. Where the road rises at the far end of the video, we dug out the mud and added rocks to create a more solid ramp on which the car could drive. The photo below is what happened to my shoes after we dug the tracks.

Beginning of the Flood (yes, the noise is the water)

Receding of the Flood