30 Pictures of America That Will Make You Want to Hit the Road

Rich Land, Ute Country (Iowa)

There are pockets of land so beautiful, it would be easy to forget the pain they witnessed. Like these Iowa mountains, some of the richest land, taken from the native Utes. Pull aside in your journey to take in the beauty while you listen to and grieve for the injustices that took (and take) place on our soil.

Rich Land | Ute Country The Utes, like the Hawaiians, lived on plentiful lands that made life fairly simple. Wild game was plentiful, as were wild berries and other wild edible vegetation. Like the native Hawaiians, the Utes were looked down on by the whites for their simple and relaxed way of life. Once contained to a reservation in the western Colorado Rockies, still on their land of plenty, a new reservation agent was assigned to the Utes and determined that they were lazy and would need to be made to work, by any means necessary, to be civilized, even if that meant stripping them of land previously guaranteed to them by the US government. In conjunction with the greed of the government of Colorado and poor oversight by the US government, an inevitable conflict broke out when the US marched troops into the Ute lands. In short the conflict ended with the Utes losing what they had left of their plentiful mountain land (as seen above) and being exiled into some of the wors country in the area. While some of the area in the east part of the reservation are still very nice, the areas Southwest of Cortez, Colorado were the worst of these. We drove through it, commenting on its barrenness and loneliness. An empty, desolate feeling place, lacking even the typical beauty of the desert. It was known as the land even the Mormons didn't want. A visual reminder of the gross injustice done to the Utes by the governments and men of wealth and power of Colorado and the United States. Colorado is so beautiful. I can't wait to go back and really explore. Unfortunately we were only driving through. We spent a bit too much time in the Southwest so are having to rush a little more than I would like. This is just outside of Pagosa Springs. And while the lighting was poor when I was able to take this I still like the image and felt like sharing it because it tells a story. The Aspens were all changing color, bright yellow and a beautiful contrast against the green pines running up the mountains, along the San Juan river valley. While shooting a few roadside photographs I saw dear running in the aspen groves along the river. It really was (is) a paradise.

A photo posted by Jason Koons (@j_koons) on Oct 10, 2015 at 10:16pm PDT