We woke up early, hoping to see the sunrise. 6:30 AM was too late for it (we were close enough to the time line, about 10 miles, that it was practically 7:30 instead). So, we packed up and ate. My arm was a little worse this morning, and the stacks of stuff in the car a bit annoying, so I was a little cranky this morning.
But, we got going after a good breakfast. We headed off to the ranger station, doing some quick mental math on what was doable for today; a hike to the bristlecones and a 90 minute cave tour seemed reasonable. We got to the cave visitor center and… their times didn’t quite meet what we had hoped, so we were confronted with a choice: caves or 5,000 year old trees. Lara wanted caves, I wanted pines, but she was more excited about her choice, so I gave in.
We had a slight wait for the cave, so we went up to the top of the scenic road and did a quick (15 minute) hike through a forest island. We then went back down for the cave tour.
The Lehman Caves were awesome. The people… most were fine, but two were not. We were at the back and responsible for pushing everyone on, so these two needing to take 5 pictures of every cool feature (or 15 seconds of video for one of them), was annoying. Lara didn’t mind, but my misanthropy made me more cranky.
We emerged from the caves, left the park, got coffee from the only coffee shop for 20 miles (and it was really good), and resumed course on US 50. This section is much more devoid of people. At the Nevada/Utah state line, the sign warns “Next Services: 83 miles.” We drove for a little over an hour with only a couple of buildings to be seen before rediscovering civilization in Delta, UT.
We made a detour to visit the Topaz Internment Camp. It’s 16 miles outside of Delta, and gone now. There are some markers and cement pads left, but otherwise it’s be scrubbed away. (There are some other artifacts on the site, like rock garden remains, but not much is visible.) It’s in a very remote and desolate spot.
We then went to the Topaz Museum in Delta to learn about the camp. The museum is free, and the (volunteer?) staff is very friendly. They have some awesome exhibits showing how the interned Japanese were able to pass the time – they found shells and made fantastic sculptures; they made amazing art (they were paint or sketch only because interned citizens were not allowed to own cameras); they showed great spirit despite the deplorable nature of their forced relocation (there’s a zen word for this: gaman – to quote Wikipedia: “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”).
All told, Topaz had over 11,000 people pass through, with a peak population of a little over 8,100 (which made it the 5th largest city in Utah at the time). The living conditions sucked. The housing was typically a 20x20ft room for 4-6 people. They had no cooking facilities and ate at a mess hall where, early on, the food was pretty much spare Army slop. They weren’t allowed to earn more than $16/month, or live outside the camp (they could, after a few months of this program) visit the neighboring town, and after the first year, they could buy things with the money they had before the forced relocation (the U.S. government froze their assets for a time too).
The museum has a recreation of one of the bunk rooms with actual furniture inside, and half of a recreation hall out back (yes, both are actual buildings from Topaz made of the original materials -though the rec hall has new tar paper on the outside since the original rotted). It was a surprising glimpse into how poorly this country could treat 130,000 of its own citizens and just how strongly the Japanese-American population was able to shoulder this horrible burden. If you can, visit (and donate to them, please).
After this 2 hour side trip, we resumed out travels towards our final campsite. We got some grub before getting on I-70 (“Next Services: 103 miles”). We saw some nice views, and a beautiful dusk sky. We caught some old radio shows on AM, and then some of the presidential debate (it definitely brought Lara down). We arrived in the Arches area and scoured for a campsite.
The BLM has 7 campgrounds on the Colorado River south of the park – they’re all full. A nice couple let us squat on an open tent pad on their site, saving us from panicked 9PM campsite searching in a darkened canyon. So, we can spend the last night of the grand tour sleeping under the stars (also, HOLY CRAP, So.Many.Stars. So much more than was visible at Great Basin!).
Tomorrow: Arches, hikes, driving to Denver to tend the tour of the NW Parks, and to rest before moving to the Midwest ( 🙁 ).