There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount , a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be. Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire.

Michele and I think of Boulder when we talk about going to Utah. We have, after all, been going there, going through there, or going near there, for about twenty-eight years. We haven’t been to Salt Lake City even once during that twenty-eight years. Now, looking through my latest pictures, I wonder if we have been to Boulder, either. Where we have been is the Boulder Mountain Lodge and the Hell’s Backbone Grill, which, in actuality, are sort of cultural islands. Cosmopolitan islands in a provincial sea.

Both the Boulder Mountain Lodge and Hell’s Backbone Grill were designed by the architect that did several of Steven Spielberg’s houses? buildings? and they look like it. I want to quickly say that I mean that with the greatest admiration. It feels like it has been here for years; and it hasn’t. In a conservative society like Boulder, that is a virtue. This is a destination resort, without a pool, or activities, or…anything , really, but a room with a view of the next door wetlands and two picnic tables. The first time we came here, it was because Boulder was where the pavement ended and the graded-dirt Burr Trail, which was the only access to the trails on the east side of the Escalante River Basin, started; this time, we came here just to have dinner at the Hell’s Backbone Grill and see the scenery.

On the other side of the wetlands that the Boulder Mountain Lodge overlooks are the remains of an Anasazi village that was inhabited from about 1050 AD to 1200 AD. Now it is the Anasazi State Park Museum. Other than the park, Boulder is pretty much a ranching community without much to see. That probably should read at its heart, it is still a ranching community despite its growth and the cross-pollination between the native population – for lack of a better term – and transients like us. In 1999, the population was listed as 136 and slowly declining; by 2000, with the arrival of the Lodge, it was 184, and now the population is 236.

For us, the biggest attraction in Boulder is dinner at what is probably, our favorite restaurant, Hell’s Backbone Grill. The food at the Grill is excellent, good enough to be a five-time semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant from the James Beard Foundation. Still, it is the way the owners have become part of this small town, and have changed it, and have been changed by it, the spiritual groundedness and connection of the restaurant’s owners, that leaves the longest impression. Although Boulder is a small provincial town without much in the way of attractions, the surrounding area is world-class scenic.

Finding world class scenery in Salt Lake City, is, however difficult to find. But far from impossible.

  In Salt Lake City, it is much easier to find world-class buildings. To be continued.