A Southwestern USA Expedition: St. George & trip conclusion

I had never heard of St. George but we needed one last place to spend a night between Zion and Las Vegas. St. George was big enough to have some decent restaurants and there were a couple of interesting things to do in the morning, and that was all we needed. Our Airbnb was in the residential suburb of Ivins west of town. The parkway that connected the cities was regularly interrupted by traffic circles containing landscape installations with marvelous sculptures with western themes. The Airbnb was on a quiet street with small, utilitarian houses that had gravel yards and an interesting mixture of palms and evergreens. A red massif provided a formidable background to the end of the street. The 117 degree temperature when we arrived in the late afternoon was the highest I had ever experienced by far. I was anxious enough about it that I made sure to have the house door unlocked and then hustled the kids straight from the interior of the car to the interior of the house in less than ten seconds. I don't know if I expected them to burst into flames spontaneously but it felt like walking through a gauntlet of ovens that had just been opened. I commemorated the occasion with a photograph of the thermometer on the front porch.

We cowered indoors until the sun began to go down and then ventured out to dinner in St. George. We had a hankering for Asian food now that we were back in a real city but the highly-rated Korean restaurant we chose turned out to be a dispirited cafeteria-style place where we ordered and received our food at a window. It was still quite good so it felt like a success, and then we drove to a restaurant on top of the huge bluff on the west side of town for dessert and the view. Even though it was dusk it felt like we were being slowly baked in the heavy, torrid air on the patio. We could see the entire expanse of the city in the flat valley surrounded by a ring of buttes. Most of the buildings were just one or two stories tall with the exception of a solitary church-like structure that glowed gold in the dusk. I made a mental note to look it up and discovered later it was the city's Mormon temple.

In the morning it was substantially cooler, although the temperature still hovered around the century mark. We decided to play it by ear and see as much as we could around town, knowing that it would be unbearable outdoors after noon. The entire northern side of St. George is defined by a large protected expanse called Red Cliffs National Conservation Area which is filled with scenic wilderness and trails for hiking and biking. It's not a bad place to have on one's doorstep. At the southern edge of the conservation area adjacent to the town is a more orderly section called Pioneer Park which is filled with natural red rock formations to explore and also contains a unique botanical garden called Red Hills Desert Garden. The garden was created from a featureless area of arid red desert in 2014 and displays countless species of cacti and other water-efficient plants in a well-manicured plot with its own stream and a replica of a slot canyon.

Next door at Pioneer Park we found a safe-looking chunk of rock to scramble up. As always in the southwest I was amazed by the prioritization of naturalness over safety, not that I objected to it. I kept a watchful eye on the kids as there were numerous wide fissures on the rocky surface and it wasn't easy to tell the difference between a change in grade and a drop-off. We had no protection from the sun here and the heat quickly became uncomfortable so it wasn't too hard to convince the kids to head back to the car.

The outdoor portion of our morning was essentially completed by ten. Anything else we did in St George would consist of hustling between air-conditioned environments. The other area of interest to us was a neighborhood called Kayenta in the northwest corner of Ivins. The Kayenta Art Village is an aggregation of interesting galleries with fascinating collections of southwestern sculpture, paintings, and photography. It also contains one of St. George's most celebrated lunch restaurants, Xetava Gardens Cafe. We browsed the galleries and chatted with some artists while we waited for the restaurant to open. The restaurant was designed and decorated in that unmistakable southern Utah style with red rock elements and Native American themes. Lunch was delicious and refreshing, especially the homemade lemonade.

The residential area around the Art Village looked interesting so we went for a drive along the black asphalt roads that curved through the desert landscape. The crumbling red cliffs of the conservation area formed a grandiose background. The homes around us all had a similar aesthetic, adobe ranches with a large footprint yet unobtrusive. Many were almost hidden by the low scrub that enveloped them, partially due to the sloping ground and partially because of the foundations having been poured lower than the surrounding land. We had stumbled upon a very unusual planned community. It was clear that these were expensive, luxury residences yet the location was so isolated we wondered what could attract people here when there were so many other options. Later we came across a video that helped explain the draw of this particular community, although it seemed like there were plenty of completed homes and lots that remained unsold. There was even one street that ended abruptly in the desert as if funding had evaporated in the middle of the job. It definitely wasn't a place we could ever live but it was beautiful in its own way and I hope the community survives and prospers in that parched and secluded spot.

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St. George had proved to be an unexpectedly interesting city, and even more surprisingly the insane temperatures hadn't prevented us from seeing everything we had planned and more. We had one final task which was to check out the Mormon temple we had seen from the restaurant patio the night before. When we arrived we found that the temple itself was closed for renovation, just like the main one in Salt Lake City, but we could still see it through the windows of the visitor center. There were some interactive displays in the visitor center as well that the kids had fun with, as well as an impressive shelf of copies of the Book of Mormon translated into dozens of languages.

By mow we were disappointed if we weren't surrounded by amazing landscape on our drives between cities, and the first part of Interstate 15 that passed through the northwestern corner of Arizona was no disappointment. Massive dark cliffs loomed on either side of the curving highway, almost devoid of vegetation. Once we entered Nevada our surroundings reverted quickly to nondescript flatland. We passed close by one of Nevada's most celebrated natural attractions, the Valley of Fire, but it was far too hot to consider any hiking and I had plans for our last few hours in Las Vegas.

We returned to Las Vegas from the north, passing through a seemingly endless flat expanse of warehouses and commercial buildings. The relative compactness of the Strip belies the enormousness of the sharply defined Las Vegas metropolitan area. We drove straight to Area 15 to try out Particle Quest, the augmented reality scavenger hunt we hadn't had time for on our first visit. It felt strange to be back in the same place a month later having completed the huge itinerary that had stretched before us on our first visit. Area 15 had the same avant garde energy as before although the 110 degree heat meant that virtually no one was around the outdoor installations. The game was entertaining, especially for the older kids, although it was a little confusing and lacked much of a payoff for solving the puzzles. I hope the Area 15 concept will spread to more cities since it's a fascinating, although expensive, alternative to the typical forms of entertainment available in large cities.

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One of the few things I remembered about visiting Las Vegas as a kid more than forty years previously was getting taken to Circus Circus. Most of the entertainment on the Strip is designed for adults but this casino's selling point is the entire floor devoted to arcade games and circus acts. Parents will drop their kids off in the arcade and gamble for hours, and hopefully will find their kids still there when they finish. I wanted to finish the trip with a fun and memorable experience for the kids so this would be our final stop of the journey except for dinner. We got off to a great start when Cleo miraculously won a large stuffed animal for placing first in her first game, a Roll-A-Ball horse race. I never expected her to win because there were several adults among her seven competitors so I didn't bother to take a video. Much to everyone's amazement her balls kept dropping in the highest scoring holes and she finished comfortably ahead of the next contestant. Afterwards I videoed every game she played in the hope that lightning would strike again but it wasn't to be.She got interested in another game in which the goal was to launch chickens into pots by hitting a lever with a mallet, but it was clear she wasn't strong enough to achieve the required distance. I took the game over and I was able to win another small prize so that Ian wouldn't have to leave without anything.

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Our timing worked out well because just as our prepaid cards ran out of funds it was time to head over to the stage for the hourly show, a talented acrobat performing on aerial silks. I don't think anyone would have mistaken it for Cirque du Soleil but it was another nice piece of entertainment for the kids to leave them with good final memories of the trip before the long flight home.

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Our last dinner was at Trattoria Nakamura-Ya, the first Italian Japanese fusion restaurant we've ever encountered. It was a cool concept and some of the dishes were good, but it didn't meet our expectations of being one of the best meals of the trip. With that our itinerary was complete and there was nothing left to do except drive to the airport and check in for our red eye flight back to Miami. At the time all I can remember feeling was a huge sense of relief that we'd made it through all those challenging environments without any injuries, illnesses, or other disasters and COVID had only resulted in some minor inconveniences. It was only after I had time to reflect on everything we accomplished that I realized that this journey was at least the equal of any of the long road trips we had taken in Europe. Of course it's hard to compare national parks and Southwestern Americana with the rich and historic atmosphere of major European cities, but in terms of the thrill of adventure and new experiences this trip was unparalleled. One of my favorite ways to cope with annoying aspects of daily life such as traffic jams and dental cleanings is to cast myself back mentally to a period of travel, and lately I've found myself choosing episodes from the Southwest trip more than any other. The ten greatest experiences were scattered around all four states and from the beginning to the end of the journey. There were so many incredible adventures that even the Grand Canyon didn't make the top ten, although I think if I extended the list to eleven it would have been on there.

10. Shiprock
9. Rafting the Sevier
8. Fishing in Lake Powell
7. Jerome, Arizona
6. Exploring Albuquerque
5. Antelope Island
4. Las Vegas Strip
3. Bisti Wilderness
2. Low Road to Taos
1. Bryce Canyon and the Hogback

With that trip we've explored most of the iconic regions of the United States, having already done the Deep South, Pacific Northwest, Southern California, Great Lakes, and New England. If I ever need to make an itinerary for a month-long summer road trip in the US again I will probably do Appalachia with a focus on Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and the Virginias. However I truly hope we don't have to take that trip this summer, as I'm more than ready to return to continental Europe after a four year absence due to COVID.