Field Notes
Old HWY 6 & 50
East of Green River, Utah
After you reach Thompson Springs you'll want to keep an eye out for a small road sign that reads "Floy". Take the exit and when the roads begins to crumble in front of you — just hold on and keep on driving.
The old Highway 6 & 50 surface won't get too much worse. You'll pass along an endless sea of rabbitbrush, poured out beneath the Book Cliffs, between precarious mounts of rubble. Look out for ruddy patches of Desert Trumpets. The color of this sea of wild buckwheat varies depending on the season. If you can, try to time your visit around winter or early spring.
If you're anything like me, going from A to B without much consideration for the spaces between destinations; it'll reward you to slow down and take your time. You might be surprised what you hear if you turn off the car and wander off a short ways.
Recently I've found myself being drawn to quiet and seemingly overlooked spaces — overlooked by people (me) at least. Along this particular stretch of nowhere-special ravens cackled, cows were doing what they've always done, and desert plants were resting dormant before celebrating Springtime.
To me it feels like the solitude and seeming unimportance of these places gives me permission to simply be. Nobody is trying to sell me anything, the landscape isn't trying to tell me something (but I am free to eavesdrop), and the cows didn't seem overly concerned about my staring or meandering.
Out here it felt okay to be 'lost', to not have a plan nor know what I was doing or where I was going. In-between nowhere and somewhere, time can slow down if we allow it. Why don't you take off that costume of a human-doing and leave it next to the signpost that reads "Floy". Catch a breeze. Go and simply human-be.
;)
