The wild west

The town of Wendover was interesting in only for the stark contrast of State laws. The Nevada half was all neon casinos and the Utah half, literally divided by a white line painted on the road was normal.

The Great Salt flats are really flat. And kinda white but not exceptionally interesting after a few minutes. It was kinda wet when we got out to walk on them and it was more like clay but the little pools had salt crusts around the edges.

Salt Lake City looked much like Reno - and almost every other city since the age of the car. So we decided to spend the day on Antelope Island state Park where the wild bison roam. We did a geocache there and looked around. The Great Salt Lake is kinda neat in that it was so salty I could feel it in the thickness of the water on my hand. Too bad it was too cold to go for a float!

We were just cutting across the top part of Utah so we were soon in Wyoming. Wyoming is the wild west, all dry and empty but for barbed wire cows and antelope. Odd thing about Wyoming - everyoen drives a full size pick-up truck with a big push grill on the front. Then again maybe its not that weird?

We did check out the Devil's Monument as seen here:

It's actually more impressive in RL. Sadly I can't really say the same for Mount Rushmore which we also visited. But maybe that's just my is towards nature versus man made showing through?

The Black Hills are very cool if overly touristed now. Too many billboards and such for my taste. I did have a meal to my taste at the Gem Saloon in historic Deadwood.

The Left Coast

From Seattle we drove across Oregon, a state that really, and I mean really supports their college football team. Go ducks. Nice enough, very green but really we were just zooming through to get to the big show – Redwood national Forest in northern California. Which was awesome. Awesome, awesome. So awesome I'm not going to bother posing any pics because pictures not only can't do them justice but pictures will make you thin they are less impressive than they are. OK one pic:

Thats us at the base of “the big tree”. It goes waaay up in a way that is impressive like no skyscraper ever will be. I wonder if it is the biggest Redwood left or just the biggest one that is easy walking distance from the highway? In any case it's huge.

We did make a stop to step into the Pacific ocean. It was a bit cool for a dip. One of the awesome things about visiting these places in the off season is that they are not maggoty with the unwashed masses. The beach was empty and the Redwoods nearly. This was especially important for me in the Redwoods to be able to appreciate the quiet. Just the sounds of my feet and the constant drip of water in the humid air.

Due to my passport gaff we had to leave San Francisco and environs for another trip and so we went across northern California directly to Reno, via Redding. In Redding I ate at Carl's Jr. That too was awesome, heart stoppingly, belt snappingly awesome. Before Redding I drove the craziest stretch of highway I've seen yet. It was like 5 miles (8 kms) of continuous S turns down the side of a mountain. I was the driver and still getting nauseous.

While northern California was pretty interesting in the variations of topography Nevada was very dull. About the only thing of note in northern Nevada is that the locals recognize that it is so dull they have put casinos everywhere they can find an electrical supply. We're not gamblers so it was a dull drive for us. Maybe the prisons didn't have casinos? Maybe.

In any case we were looking forward to the Salt flats and I didn't bother taking any pictures so here's one more of the redwoods.