Thirteen - Idaho, Oregon, Washington

Locks and Bolts - Greens and Golds

I woke up in Twin Falls, Idaho with a weather forecast of upper 90's and smokey skies.  I decided to hit the road quickly before any chance of getting caught in the fires near Sun Valley decided to move themselves West.  Being from the New York originally, I can't say I had ever experienced the effects of a devastating forest fire.  This was certainly eye-opening, and I wasn't even in the worst part.

Boise, Idaho is about 2 hours West of Twin Falls, and is a nice, youthful city.  Not to mention, that's where the amazing Old Idaho State Penitentiary from 1870 is.  My first impression was - well, at least the prisoners were situated within beautiful mountains in a state known for it's sunshine.  How bad could it be?

Then you step inside the stone walls.

The Women's Ward is the first building you come across, which is in a separate plot from the Men's.  This was constructed by the prisoners from 1905-1906.  Prior to this, the women served their term in the same buildings and grounds as the men.  Now, although the photos and stories of these women prove they were some seriously bad b*tches, the idea of being locked up with the men is unfathomable.

The main grounds, or where the men stayed, is made up of a series of buildings within a large, stone strong hold.  There were roses planted within the grounds, but I find it very hard to believe these prisoners had any flowers to enjoy during their sentences.

I'm a sucker for old buildings and facade's, so I found these structures incredible.

I'm very happy I live on the outside of prison walls, rather than being locked up with people like this,

who were wielding things like this:

Not to mention, you slept in one of these halls with the most model citizens.

Some were seemed to be very good at personalizing their environments.

But what did they do other than sleep and write on the walls?  They got put to work by The Man.  They were in charge of cleaning their linens and personal possessions, as well as cleaning uniforms for soldiers during the wars.

It was incredibly interesting to see the old equipment, seemingly untouched since the prison closed its doors in 1973.

Shadows and sounds began to play tricks on me, making me aware I am afraid of ghosts, so I got the heck out of the beautiful old, but terrifying spaces, and back on the road.

It's $5 to enter and check out - so DEFINITELY do it if you're in Boise.  If you're into hiking/mountain biking, you can do a few trails directly behind the buildings as well.

I pushed West, and found myself in the Historic town of La Grande, Oregon.

It's a cute town off the main highway, at the base of some small mountains, along a very large, and what looks like very busy, set of railroad tracks.

The town is full of very cool, old buildings,

a slew of fully functional, rad older vehicles,

beautiful, artistic murals,

and incredible texture.

Did I mention the cars?

Pressing on to Washington I went through fields of green and gold, mountains of tall pines, then back to fields.  There is something so beautiful about the glow of these endless fields.  They reminded me of a painting by Van Gogh, "Wheat Fields with Crows".

After miles of these rolling flats, you enter wine country.  I decided to pull off in a town called Yakima, Washington, situated along the Yakima river.  Really interesting Historic district.

Since it's located right along the train tracks, it also had a very cool shipping area.  I loved the myriad of products, crates, and objects in the area.  It creates a sort of rhythm I find very inspiring.

These three states definitely took a toll on me and my car, but in the best way.  I will absolutely be coming back to this area and spending more time perusing the landscape, downtown, as well as the wine!

Day Dozen - Utah, Nevada, Utah, Idaho

In order to get from Salt Lake City to Utah, you have to go through Nevada.

I spent the night in Salt Lake City and woke up to clear skies, chance of 100 degree weather, and a flat tire on my bike.  Aside from the bike, all components seemed perfect for the day's journey:

Nancy Holt's artwork, "Sun Tunnels".

I studied this particular piece while at the University of Vermont and fell in love with her idea of removing artwork from the elitist "white-walled" gallery space, and creating something where the value is in the piece itself as well as the journey and experience getting to it.  About this work in particular she also stated, "It's an inversion of the sky/ground relationship-bringing the sky down to the earth".  That aspect of the work I never understood while reading about the piece in textbooks.  Being at the artwork site, however, puts it all into perspective.

Let me back up a minute... let's talk about getting there.

Exit Utah towards the West side of the Great Salt Lake, where white mounds of salt are piled on either side of the highway.  There are shallow pools next to the roads as well for a large portion of the beginning of the drive.  These pools seem to behave more like mirrors than liquid, and the reflections in them are remarkable.  Too bad there's the whole moving vehicle thing to pay attention to.

Once the Great Salt Lake is far in your rear view mirror, you enter the Salt Flats.  I am still jogging my brain for reasons why anyone would want to camp on the Salt Flats, or go there for any extended period of time, but I have yet to come up with one.  While they may look like cold, refreshing fields of snow, let me assure you - they are not.  Driving through them at 9 am, it was 90 degrees fahrenheit.

Now, I learned the hard way about plugging in GPS coordinates into your Tom Tom that hasn't been updated since, oh let's say, 2003.  If, and I should say when, you head to the Sun Tunnels, head towards Lucin, UT, and enter off the highway UT-30.

Or else you will end up here:

 Leaving Utah, going into Nevada, to then enter Utah about 20 miles down the road:

Although this route was much longer and way more rugged than the other, the scenery was beautiful and I learned what extended time at 15 mph feels like.  Although I was in the middle of the desert, there were a few, seemingly random, farm areas scattered about the drive.  Most of the property signs had gun holes in them, so I did not stop to tell them about the Between the Points Project.

One of my favorite signs read "No Hunting, Don't Ask".

After a little over an hour, and about 4 hours from Salt Lake City, I arrived at the Sun Tunnels.  Believe it or not, I had the exhibition all to myself.

The concrete tubes, as well as the holes drilled into the sides of all four of them (these holes are in the formation of particular constellations), were much larger than I anticipated.  When you walk through the tubes there is an echo from your feet that almost gives you an out of body experience - or maybe that was the heat.

Each time you turn around or venture into a different tunnel you frame a new image.  The light changes every time you move around the piece, and no matter how unchanged it seems, everything is different.

You become very aware of how small you are, and how vast the landscape around you is.  Every time I moved through the tunnels I felt as though the distance between the earth and sky collapsed.  I know she likely did not intend for there to be skateboard tracks twisting through the tunnel, but they add to the feeling that you are in a sort of vortex, spinning and rotating, inverting the sky and the sand.

While I feel I could have spent the whole day there, watching the sun move over the works, I had to press on.  Not to mention, my super-gringo skin may not last a full day in the salty Utah desert sun.

Although, let it be known, this is the most color my skin has had in years.. 

and it's not (completely) pink.

Back in the art mobile, and onto the dusty trail.  I ended up taking a different route out, so I had a nice new tour of the desert landscape.

Twin Falls, Idaho was my next stop, and boy, how the landscape did change.  I drove through white, salt flats, down red and green grass fields leading into mountains, and into golden and green hay fields at the base of some smaller mountains.  Southern Idaho was beautiful - all these ranges of gold and green butting up against crisp blue and white skies.  I also loved all the farm equipment, and how the sun reflected off the endless, massive sprinkler systems.

I made great time coming into Twin Falls which was perfect because my bike needed some work, the car was due for an oil change, and quite possibly a serious car wash.

With everything tuned up, I'll be heading to Washington in the morning.