Thanks Bernhard!!!
Well, it’s now time for the fifth tour out of 12 planned for this thread, and we’re back with Dan in the good ol’ US of A. The state/DLC is Utah, the last of the four ‘mainly desert’ states of the American West*. The other three are, in order of newness and niceness, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. All of these have their moments, and with their wide, dusty vistas they certainly make a change from the green tree-tunnels and colorful fields of Europe. But Utah definitely seems to be the best of them, at least partly because it doesn’t just contain Utah, but ADDS a significant amount of new roads and scenery to the FIVE states that surround it**. And the scenery both in Utah and outside is in many cases absolutely STUNNING.
(*As far as I know, Colorado, Wyoming and Texas are, like California and Oregon, home to some significant areas of arid, rocky country. Perhaps all of the western states have at least something like that, even Idaho and Washington. But they are not primarily desert.)
(**I later realised that this statement is rubbish, but whatever. It's the FEELING that counts.)
This is the last tour which I have the option of starting in my home base of Las Vegas, so I’m gonna do it.
We’ll be cruising in the International LT this time.
Got our cargo, which needs to be taken via St George, Hurricane Valley, and Fredonia to Kanab along a route that wobbles along the Utah – Arizona border.
A quick look at the official DLC map will show that the ONLY city in the south of Utah is St George. That’s it. It doesn’t mention Hurricane Valley, Fredonia or Kanab. And that’s where the second awesome thing about Utah lies. If you look at the map, there are just a few cities squished together mainly in the north, but in reality, there are loads of cool places not marked on the map because they have no jobsites, service stops or garages. In one way that’s a bad thing, but on the other hand there’s always plenty to discover, and it gives you just a taste of the vast wilderness that exists in that part of the world.
Aquariums free of sharks, libraries free of books that might make people feel… uncomfortable. Good ol’ USA at its finest.
Another great advert. America sometimes seems a very strange place through European eyes.
Leaving Las Vegas for the last time. For a while, at least. There’s a Red Bull Air Race going on in the background. I’ll say it again, whatever one feels about LV in real life, it makes an incredible starting city.
Along this route from Las Vegas to St George, we enter Arizona before we get to Utah.
Another great thing about Utah is that it marks the first occasion when SCS made use of new software for creating more realistic looking rocks. The difference between un-upgraded (in February 2022) Nevada and Utah is very noticeable.
Because all the cities in Utah are so clustered together, and there is so much empty space, this means that the majority of roads in the expansion actually lead from cities with jobsites in Utah to cities with jobsites OUTSIDE the state. The proportion of roads added by the DLC which are actually between cities in Utah is relatively small. My guess is maybe one third or even one quarter of the total amount of new roads. Everything else is heading out of the state – or into it, depending on your perspective.
And as each neighboring state is different, with varied landscapes, vegetation and rocks, and dates from different periods, what you’ve got with Utah is an amazingly varied map that is much more impressive than it looks on paper. To be honest, if I’d known it was so nice, I’d have left it till later in my Grand Tour of ETS2 and ATS. Well, too late now. I’m sure the other DLCs also have a lot to offer. Not sure they’ll beat Utah though, but we’ll see.
And here it is – Utah. We’re going to be seeing signs like this a lot, as I’ve decided to do this tour in a similar way to the lower Going East countries, but instead of touring all the within-state roads first and then making trips outside, I’m going to do the opposite – trips into Utah from its five neighbors for the first 2/3 of the tour, and then focus on the main cities of Utah and the connections between them for the final third.
Weigh stations. Allowed to bypass them this time.
Arriving in St George. It’s one of the main cities on the map, so we won’t explore it properly today. We’ll just whizz through on the flyover.
Cutting through the hills.
Heading towards a place called Hurricane Valley.
Hurricane Valley… I think.
Eastwards…
Southwards towards the Arizona border.
Arizona again. It’s all go ‘ere, innit.
And that’s it for now. Next time – Fredonia and Kanab, briefly, before starting a new trip from Pioche, Nevada to Cedar City in Utah. Thanks for looking in, and hope you liked.
Dan
