Yesterday, Yellowstone Lake was a key turning point on my journey. That was the moment at which I stopped heading west and turned south, and would now remain southwards for some days. Leaving Jackson today this meant crossing more of Wyoming and into Utah. Mornings in Jackson are cold. I set off at 6 deg and it didn't change much from that for the first few hours. I climbed up onto another great plateau. This was the Wyoming you see in pictures. High plains, small farms, distant mountains. Beautiful area but long distances between everything. Real cowboys having coffee at the gas station. This is a part of America that hasn't changed much and I felt so good to just become part of it for a short while. People were chatty, pleasant, down to earth. I think they like meeting for coffee as they all live miles apart from each other for most of the day.

After a while, the mountains receded and the grass started to give way to dust. We were entering Utah. The difference in the towns was huge. Wyoming was mostly smart, if not showy. Utah is a mixture of poor Native Americans and poor Mormons. The towns were dusty and rundown. Northern Utah is not the picture postcard bit. This is mining and quarrying country. Wyoming was all farming; there doesn't seem to be any of that here. At least it was really warming up now and was in the high 20s. But it felt like an area that wasn’t worth lingering in. I passed a huge reservoir and stopped to admire a view over the dam. The twisting roads in and out of the valley were filled with huge lorries supporting the operations that happen around here. Felt like a working heartland of America but nothing memorable to look back upon. As I headed further south, the more classic Utah sandstone scenery started to unfurl around me. The landscape was getting more dramatic and there were now signs to numerous national and state parks.

Base for the night was Green River, a small, unremarkable town mostly given over to adventure sports enthusiasts. Today, I’d left behind the wonder of Wyoming – it had filled up almost three days of my trip and I was already planning how to return one day. And I’d entered Utah and I wasn’t really enjoying it yet. Tomorrow I needed to go and find out what this state is really about.