Book Cliffs
I-70, Crescent Junction looking east. I believe a gas station has been put in here on the north side since I took this photo.
2-lane to the left is old US6 - road veering to right is US191 heading south to Moab - about 30 miles.
Between US6 and the cliffs is the Union Pacific Railroad, once the Denver & Rio Grande. The tracks to the now-defunct potash mine at Moab are just visible above US191.
Off in the distance along US6 at the gap is Thompson Springs.
For those that have read Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire", Thompson Springs is where he got off the train heading for his job at Arches National Park due south of there. Thompson is still a sort-of town with fewer than 50 residents - but the area has been inhabited off and on since at least 1000BC. Pictographs are common in the canyons north of town.
The 80 mile stretch from here east to Grand Junction, CO is designated a scenic highway though most wouldn't consider it such. Looks just like this photo most of the way.
Starting 20 miles west at the US6 junction north to Price and Salt Lake and just past Green River is a 110 mile stretch of "No Services" ... which means NO services, no nothing, nobody. I believe it's the longest stretch of nothing on an Interstate in the lower 48. That section travels through some spectacular scenery though. One of the last major stretches of Interstate to be completed; it was essentially a 2-lane highway until 1990; it dead-ended at a cliff face at what is now the US50 exit at Salina. Traffic was far, far lighter then.
On a personal note, I lived a short while in Moab - near-on 50 years ago now I think about it, before it became what it is today - while performing oil exploration surveys in the San Rafael Swell. It was still a oil/gas/uranium town then but those times were already passing on.
The divided highway portion of I-70 at that time ended here at Crescent Junction (and was only divided east to Glenwood Springs; two lane through Glenwood Canyon); we'd drive on US6 to Green River then head out south into the boonies at the heart of the Swell.
Old 6 is not maintained much anymore and is becoming rough to travel but I still pass along that route when I'm passing through and time allows. Both the gas station and restaurant in Green River are gone now but I can still feel the ghosts if I pause long enough to let the spirits flow. I usually don't anymore.
One of my favorite regions of the country nonetheless.
Addendum:
I made mention of I-70 in the country just west of Green River.
Looking east across I-70 from 15 miles west of Green River. LaSalle Mountains on the horizon
