Day 58 -- Rock City Idaho, Nevada, Bonneville Salt Flats and Salt Lake City

Travel   From: Craters of the moon NM, ID   To: Salt Lake City, UT   Distance: 506 mi (814 km)   Travel time w/brks: 13 hr 13   Distance since start: 12,178 mi (19,582 km)

Thursday 8/17/2006

Because we had effectively regained one day of our camping trip, we could now extend our camping in Salt Lake City by one night. The original plan was to spend just one night there, zipping in earlier during the day and then going out in the city. But we now had some extra time. In addition, I spoke with one of the locals from Idaho who recommended we should swing by City of Rocks National Reserve in the south of Idaho. So this was going to be another one of those 500+ mile travel days except we were also going to cram in a few other goodies..

Getting to City of Rocks was a bit of a challenge. The roads in there are basically not maintained and the road we came in on (from the north) was a dusty road with pot holes and washboards. It can't get much worse now with the Airstream shaking apart (I thought). We're soon going to be at the factory.

I missed a turn on an Idaho country road and was going to just cut through .. but I backed up instead...

After we arrived in the park we discovered that they have plenty of boon docking campsites with great views. Must be especially nice if you are a rock climber. We saw many of them climbing the various rounded rock formations here.

Nice view of City of Rocks National Reserve in southern Idaho

One of many climbers scaling rocks that we saw in the park

Hey! Where did my sewer hose go? I think it had had enough of this shit and just left us somewhere in Idaho. Oh well.

We ate lunch there. After touring around a bit I stopped at their visitor center at the other end of the park, where the road was actually reasonable. I then figured we needed some diesel. The kids also needed a bath room. We stopped at a local station. The kids thought the bathroom there was somewhat interesting. We then headed south from Idaho into Utah along a back road in the desert. I thought it would be neat to visit the Bonneville Salt Flats, since we now had some extra hours. The road down there was quite scenic.

Some parts of the backroad in northern Utah just goes on forever

The desert in west central Utah

Getting further south, we saw streaks of white

To reach the Bonneville Salt Flats along I-80 we first had to dip into Nevada

I really had no idea what to expect at the Bonneville Salt Flats. I knew that numerous land speed records had been set there, but I had no idea when tests were being conducted. As it turns out, the day we arrived there it was Race Day. I drove out with the Airstream to the ticketing table and asked if we could not just go out for a quick spin. Normally it is a $10/person fee to go out, but the lady was kind enough to let us all out for free. Wow, what a deal. The white light was overwhelming. Like snow on a sunny day, except it was also very hot. And it was really flat, too. I asked the lady how to get to the actual races. She told me to just follow the cones out. There were no roads out there.

Leaving the access road and I-80 behind us we head out on this incredibly flat surface

Following the cones, at first I could barely make out anything out there but then I saw small dots on the horizon

Then, as we got closer, we could see a make-shift parking area

Erik examines the texture of the salt flat (race tracks on the horizon)

and then makes a 'snowball' of salt

We parked the truck and Airstream by along the rope that demarked the parking area for the teams and prepared lunch. I walked around a bit but soon felt a bit dizzy from all the heat. I had a cold drink in the trailer and that helped. If you ever go out here to watch competitions you'd be well advised to dress properly and to consider using a generator to drive your A/C. My hands looked dry as well. In the background we could hear the roaring sound of race cars and motorcyles flying by on the short track (3 miles) and long track (5 miles). They are basically straight lines for these speed records. Like drag racing, there are multiple classes. And, to nail a new record, a team must have their car impounded overnight and then repeat their speed record the second day.

One of many race cars we saw at the Bonneville Salt Flat

And they complain about salt on the roads in New Hampshire. Just look at the white caking on this truck!

This guy breaks the world record for diesel with an average of 317 mph (about 509 km/h)

After watching this for a while, we felt we needed to continue towards Salt Lake City and the campground. The competitions were wrapping up anyway. What is neat is that you can listen to the communication for the competition on AM 1610 and some CB channels, too. You obviously hear the roaring vehicles fly by as you see them cross the horizon. Karl wanted me to to go as fast as I could with the Airstream but I was too concerned about the wrong speed rating on our tires to even think about trying.

Unverified speed record for an Airstream at the Bonneville Salt Flats: 35 mph.

The trip to Salt Lake City along I-80 presents some fascinating pools of water that are in this hybrid state between liquid and salt. We did not stop to take a closer look since we wanted to get to the campground. We also saw what tons of beer bottles that people had stuck into the salt along I-80. Not sure if this is some sort of tradition as part of a holiday or an event?

'Begin Salt Route' as they say in New Hampshire: I-80 East towards Salt Lake City

After we had arrived at the campground I rinsed off some of the salt on the truck and the trailer. It looked just like salt from a salt shaker that had gotten stuck on the truck. We ate dinner in the trailer and tried to connect over the Internet but the connection was very iffy at our site. All in all this is a very nice campground. After another exhausting day we went to bed following dinner.

Campground   Name: Salt Lake City KOA, UT   Our hookups: water, 30amp, sewer, cable   WiFi: Sort of   GSM service: Yes   TV Channels: Don't know   Cost: $35.53/night   Reservation mode: Phone call

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the Yukon Sky.