I am somewhat closer to dive spots than you as I can be in Panama City Beach in 5 hours or West Palm beach in 12. Going to the Keys next month 
Believe it or not, Colorado has a higher per capita dive population than any other state. That is a very strange statistic since we are also land locked and at altitude. We also contain a third of all the nations land mass that is over 10,000 feet in elevation too. Weird combo when you think about it.
Seriously though, how was the turnout for this tour?
Just looking at the pictures here makes me think nothing has changed out there since the filmed Vanishing Point.
Turn out looks lower than previous efforts. This isn't the first run they have done. I was hoping to go along this year, but finding the fragged bearing in my engine last winter meant an entire teardown and rebuild. In my world, that takes the better part of a year for a major repair like that because of schedule conflicts, which is the other reason I couldn't swing the trip in another vehicle. We are wrapping up a major sale to a chinese company that has me and my crew putting in becoup hours to complete.
There are still huge expanses of land in the west that are unchanged in appearance. A big reason they have remained that way is water. Life is not easy without it, and there aren't enough desireable mineral resources in many of these places to justify the expense of bringing in the means to extract and maintain potable water reserves. As demonstrated by these pictures, some places are so barren they wouldn't even support grazing efforts for livestock.
Drew has helped tremendously with this effort as well as previous runs. So long as he is willing to help with organization, Vanishing Points runs may continue. I doubt they would ever approach a size of a super cruise or power tour, they are just too remote, but you get enough dedicated drivers doing it, and eventually you could get some press and bump up participation further.
