OCR Text |
Show affording fine views of Arch Canyon and Grand Gulch Plateau. United States Highway 160 and State Highway 47 from Moab to Monticello pass through highly colorful sandstone country and offer fine views of Abajo and Elk Mountains. State Highway 128 from Moab to Dewey Bridge follows the Colorado River through an impressive canyon. United States Highway 89 and State Highway 15 from Kanab to Toquerville pass through Zion National Park and other spectacular scenery. The road from Escalante through Boulder to Torrey is one of the most scenic drives in Utah. State Highway 44 from Vernal to Lin wood, through the Ashley National Forest, crosses the Uinta Mountains. There is unusually fine scenery in the vicinity of Sheep Creek. COLORADO United States Highway 550 between Durango and Ouray is in the spectacular high mountain country of the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests. State Highway 82, Glenwood Springs to Twin Lakes, crosses the Continental Divide at Independence Pass, elevation 12,095. State Highway 135, from Almont to Somerset, climbs over the scenic Elk Mountains. United States Highway 160, between Pagosa Springs and Baxterville, climbs over the beautiful San Juan Mountains. ROADLESS AREAS While it will be necessary to construct new roads and improve existing ones in order to develop the resources of the basin, it must not be forgotten that the large areas in which there are no roads comprise one of the basin's great recreational assets. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service have recognized this by establishing roadless areas. Other roadless areas might well be established. The point is well stated in the Order of the Bureau of Indian Affairs dated October 25, 1937, establishing roadless and wild areas on Indian reservations: Mechanization is growing in America with unprecedented acceleration. Activity after activity which for countless generations have been performed directly by manpower and area after area which have been subject only to the forces of nature are now dominated by machinery. To millions of Americans this constitutes an unmitigated blessing. There are other millions who, while they appreciate the good which the machine can bring, also have an intense craving for another type of existence. They do not see why their life must be lived entirely in the world of machinery when there is ample space in this great country for another world as well. They cannot believe that with vast stretches which need not be used for the mechanical activities of our civilization, it is necessary to make every nook and corner of the country a part of the machine world and to wipe out all sizeable traces of the primitive. It is perfectly feasible to reserve for such people something of those wilderness values which they crave. A little advance planning and a little balancing of the claims of genuine conflicting values will make it possible to save many areas from mechanization. In the past a great many ideal wilderness areas have been opened by roads which were of no necessity and which have never returned in value of service anywhere near the investment which has been put into them. Had there been a little prior thought about a reasonable balance between primitive and developed areas, these roads would not have been constructed. 216 |