Day 13 Summer Vacation 2009

On yesterdays blog I forgot to add the State of Utah to my States Visited map. So here it is today. Now that I am looking at this map, we should have ducked down into Colorado a few days ago so that I could also add that State. I guess we will have to come back this way another year so that I can say we have been to Colorado and colour it in on my map. 7 States surround Colorado, funny we were all around it but never crossed over the State line.

Here is our route today from Salt Lake City Utah to Wendover Utah.

We left Salt Lake City around 9am and headed for the Saltair Pavilion. Although it is not the original pavilion that travellers along the Lincoln Highway would have stopped at, the original burnt to the ground. We stopped for a look around, but the place was filthy with garbage strewn everywhere, the remains of a large concert that had taken place the night before. Crews were attempting to clean up the grounds. The original building was spectacular as shown in these photos that I took of a model of the original building.

The water level in the Great Salt Lake has receeded considerably and this building used to be on the shore line, but now the shore line is about a mile out in front. I still got some good photos of The Great Salt Lake with the mountains in the background reflecting in the water. It was a hazy day, so the photos are not crystal clear as they might be on a clearer day.

On The Lincoln Highway, just east of Grantsville UT we found what is known as Adobe Rock. Then we entered the town and were greeted with this welcome sign.

We stopped at the Donner Reed Museum, it was 10am on Saturday, but the museum was closed. They are only open on Saturdays but not until 1pm. There was supposed to be a Lincoln Highway Concrete Marker here but we could not find it, so I suspect the marker may be inside the museum for preservation. We took a couple of photos and moved on.

Sometimes you don’t know for 100 percent sure that you are indeed on the old Lincoln Highway, the signage is very poor or non existent, but West of Grantsville we knew that we were on the Old Lincoln Highway when we saw this sign.

This is the 1927 route from Grantsville UT to Wendover UT. There was a 1919 route that went South to Tooele UT but it was never completed. There was a 1913 route that went through Skull Valley and Fish Springs but it is 70 miles of dirt path so we are not going to attempt to drive that segment.

We are seeing nothing but salt flats on either side of us as we drive along the old Lincoln. The old Lincoln comes to an end and we are forced out onto the Interstate and the salt continues along beside us for miles and miles and miles.

Shortly after getting onto I 80 we saw this salt processing plant.

We got off I 80 at the Aragonite exit to pick up the Lincoln Highway again. On our maps and the books we have read, there is about 10 miles of Lincoln Highway here to drive on and it will bring us back out to the Interstate at the Knolls UT interchange.

Well just past this sign pointing the way to Hastings Canyon, the road suddenly ended at the railway tracks. The maps and the GPS clearly show the road crossing the tracks, and continuing onward, but there are two obstructions… Number 1 obstruction, the road just does not exist, and Number 2 obstruction.. even if the road was there as it is supposed to be, the railway cars were parked right in the way, blocking our progress. Even if the railway cars were not parked there, we would not have gotten the car over the tracks without getting hung up on them. We turned around and re-entered the Interstate where we had exited. These are the unknowns that you encounter as you try to find the old Lincoln. All you can do is turn around, get on the Interstate and carry on to your next destination.

Our next destination is the rest area on I 80 at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Along the way we saw nothing but salt for as far as we could see.

And then this weird object appeared out in the middle of nowhere.

When we got to the Hotel in Wendover UT we got on the internet and learnt that this is a sculpture by Karl Monen. He calls it the Tree of Utah.

We pulled into the I 80 West Rest Stop that overlooks the Bonneville Salt Flats. Got some great photos here.

After the rest area we went to the Salt Flats Cafe for lunch and then drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway. Karen wouldn’t let me take her car out onto the raceway, you are really not supposed to be out there because unless you know where to drive, in some places the salt can be just a thin crust and your car will sink. You can see evidence of tire tracks of cars who did not heed the warnings. We did get some good photos while at the end of the paved road and the beginning of the salt raceway. This sign marks the end of the pavement.

After dinner this evening, we drove through Wendover UT and NV. Wendover is divided into East and West. East Wendover is in Utah and West Wendover is in Nevada. There is a line painted in the road to mark the border. Inches inside the Nevada side of West Wendover is the beginning of Casino Row. Casinos line both sides of the road running through town. Wendover Willy welcomes you to town.

Tomorrow we are heading for Ely Nevada.

To see all of our photos from today you can check out my FLICKR site.