Utah - Salt Lake City Area
We had a fun time exploring the area around Salt Lake City. We drove up into the mountains on Little Cottonwood Road. We stopped at Lisa Falls Trail. It was a short, but technical hike. Had to climb some boulders along the trial. The falls cascade sideways across a smooth granite surface into small pools. It was a very relaxing place to be.
Lisa Falls
Next we went further up Little Cottonwood Road to Snowbird Ski Resort. Earling that morning we saw in Good Morning America that you could ride the gondola up the mountain and have lunch at the top. This sounded great. However, when we got there, it was not running yet. The GMA segment was just a peak at what was going to be available for the summer. bummer!
Snowbird
We headed to the next valley over and drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon Road towards Brighton. We stopped at Ledgemere Picnic Area along thw way to have some lunch that we had packed. This is a quiet area near a small stream with picnic tables and grills. However, you need to rent the tables in advance. We were able to find a nice area near the creek and had lunch on some rocks.
Further up the road we went to Brighton Ski Resort. Here we hiked the Silver Lake Trail. Much of the trail is nice boardwalk that takes you around and over the lake. This area is known to have moose, but we did not see any.
Brighton Ski Resort
On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at Solitude Mountain Resort. They run the chairlifts here during the summer so you can ride it up to take in the view and hike down (or ride it back down). They also have special chairlifts that can carry mountain bikes up. Every other chair has either bikes or people. You can take the lift up, then ride your mountain bike downhill. There are green, blue and black diamond runs for bikes as well. Too much for me. We just sat in the sun with a cold beer and watched the bikers come down the hill.
Solitude Mountain Resort
The next day, we headed up to the north side of the Great Salt Lake. There is an Art installation called the Spiral Jetty. The Spiral Jetty is an iconic 1970 land art sculpture by Robert Smithson, a spiral of rocks and earth extending into the Great Salt Lake, reflecting themes of nature, entropy, and the passage of time. The sculpture is built of mud, precipitated salt crystals, and basalt rocks. It forms a 1,500-foot-long, 15-foot-wide counterclockwise coil originally jutting from the shore of the lake. You walk it for a spiral mediation if it is not under water.
Spiral Jetty
It is pretty remote, took two hours to reach it. No cell service. Unfortunately I got a flat tire on the gravel road one mile from the jetty. Grace helped me change the tire (it was an opportunity for me to show her how to change a tire. Silver linings everywhere !)
Flat Tire
The jetty was dried up, so walking the spiral was easy. The views are amazing! This is such pretty country.
On the way back we stopped at the Golden Spike National Historic Park. This is the part of the trans-continental railway where the east rails met with the west rails to complete the railway. The golden spike used for the ceremony is no longer here. They have two working steam engines here to mark the spot. We happen to be here when they were operating them. Very cool!
We got back to Salt Lake City and I made an appointment at Costco to get new tires. Since I have all wheel drive, I needed to replace all four tires. It is not as bad as it sounds. I have over 55,000 miles on the old tires. I war ready replace all of them anyway. Luckily Costco got me in and out the same day. We spent the last night in Salt Lake City and packed to leave the next day.
We said our goodbyes and headed west out of Salt Lake City on I-80. Here we came across the salt flats. Huge piles of salt at a Morton’s salt site. Many curious formations along the road.
Morton Salt mine
Random sculpture in the flats. I believe is is call “The Tree of Life”
At Exit 113, there was a rest area for the Bonneville Speedway salt flats site of automobile speed and endurance records. We could walk out to the salt flats. It truly is a salt flat (I tasted it!) stay away from the yellow salt (people bring their dogs here as well).
Further down the road we found an area where you could drive out into the flats. What an experience!
We crossed the state line from Utah to Nevada. Here we saw Wendover Will. This neon cowboy was built to attract people into town from the highway to go to the local casinos. We did not go to any Casinos, but we did fond a liquor store. It is difficult to purchase liquor in Utah, so these border communities have nice big liquor stores!
Wendover Will at night (from internet photos)
After stocking-up on our liquor supplies, we found another scenic drive on US Alt 93 that will take us to our next destination, Great Basin National Park. As with our other roads, this was mostly empty of any traffic. We saw wild horses and many fantastic views. It is a 4 hour drive, but worth it.
Wild Horses.
We got to our Motel. The Border Inn hotel on the border of Utah and Nevada. It is a Motel/casino/gas-station/RV-park and restaurant! We are living the dream.
View
This area is supposed to have the best night sky for viewing stars. We drove out after dark to a side road in the middle of the desert to see the stars. Pretty good!
