Day 5- Salt Flats to Twin Falls
This morning we woke up at 530 (ok I did) and I got back up
front to move the car to the east side of the truck stop we had camped at
overnight so we (I) could watch the sun rise over the salt flats. Vanessa
popped her head up every once in a while, and said to let her know when the
“whole disc” was up. I think she missed the best part of God’s show though,
because the lead-up to the sun actually appearing was really pretty. A bunch of
color changes happened in the sky over the mountains while the sun was rising
and as it came up over the horizon it reflected off the salt flats and made
them look like shimmering water. I will
put some pics in here, but they don’t really do it justice.
After the show we moved back around to the west side of the building to try to get a little more sleep, but it was super busy so I wasn’t able to. Vanessa had never really woken up fully (just popped her head up again when I told her it was time and then went back to bed) so she slept until I woke her up at 8 am and said we are ready to go. I would have just left while she was sleeping back there, but she wanted to drive first so she wasn’t driving in the mountains & I could see the flats as we drove through. We got changed & had breakfast and were off. We did have to go west for a bit to top off our charge in West Wendover before heading back east; Nik said we would arrive back in Tooele at 5% charge which is too close for comfort for me. Probably we could have made better time on the trip overall if we had charged like normal, but on road trips I like to try to not go below 30% charge if possible “just in case.” Yesterday it was a good thing we did with all the construction and wind! At one point when the wind was bad a poor bird was just hovering over the highway, flapping his little wings as hard as he could but not going anywhere! The WW charger is at a gas station but we didn’t go in at this one since we had taken care of business at the place we overnighted before we left there, also nearby were a couple of casinos and some hotels. Not a lot around. Back east we go!
On the east side of the flats is a place called The Knolls.
This is a recreational area off the main road where you can go out onto the
flats and mess around, either by foot or with atvs/cars/etc. I thought hard
about taking Nik out, but the paths down to the flats from the gravel road all
had rocks the size of Canada sticking out every which way so we left him up on
the gravel pull out and walked down. The salt was slippery in many places and
packed down in others, and when I picked up a pinch of it (I returned it after
checking it out- don’t take things from nature!) the consistency was very
similar to wet sand. We made our way back to the car, dusted off our shoes and
were off to the Golden Spike monument. Below is a picture of the salt flats and some of me standing in the flats at The Knolls.
Today we charged at WW (above), Tooele, Tremonton, and Twin
Falls. This was a departure from our original plan to go up the east side
through Idaho Falls because my sister wanted a hotel since we added a day (she
didn’t want to do 3 nights in a row in the car). Idaho Falls didn’t have
anywhere available that I was willing to stay (the Holiday Inn Express was
available but we weren’t sure about the area & my experience has been they
are not normally in fabulous areas of town so I didn’t want to risk parking Nik
there & the Hampton was housing Covid19 workers- a great thing for them to
do and I commend them for it, but I don’t want to stay with them & catch
it!) and Pocatello was full so Twin Falls was the winner. We are staying at a
regular Holiday Inn tonight so it should be good.
At the Golden Spike monument we got to see where the two
tracks layed from the east & west met up. Check out Vanessa’s blog for a
lot more on the history here- I enjoyed stop and we got some nice pictures of
the trains & the last tie placed. We drove part of the auto tour as well
and Vanessa got a picture of the sign (marking the record of laying 10 miles of
track in a day). This stop was a special request from our friend Giorgio in
Italy, but it was a great addition to the trip! Shout out to Giorgio, give our
love to the family!
When we got done at the monument I decided we had enough
charge to get all the way to Twin Falls without having to go back through
Tremonton like we thought we would, so this cut a good 90 minutes off our
travel time. We made it no problem with about 20% charge left and hung around
the visitor center & geological sight (a horseshoe canyon) while we charged
up in the visitor center parking lot. They had excellent clean restrooms and
view was gorgeous! We got up to 80% and went to drive around the area and see
some of the falls since we had daylight left. The Twin Falls waterfall itself
was just under 20 minute drive and the last bit was super fun mountain roads- I
think Vanessa closed her eyes (when she wasn’t leaning away from the edge), but
Nik and I had a blast driving them. 😊
The Twin Falls waterfall is now actually just one side of
it; the other side has been damned off to harness hydroelectric power. We were
a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see both sides running, but the one
side was beautiful by itself so it’s all good. Back up the mountain and around
the edge of the bluff to the next sight, Shoshone Falls. This place was
spectacular! The falls are breathtaking and well worth the trip out here! Lots
of pictures here and then we went back to the hotel. We ordered pizza and
chilled out for an early night.
One thing I am surprised about that I will put as a side
note here- we really haven’t seen many animals considering the places we have
been. We saw the bird that couldn’t fly, a lone coyote running up the side of
the road, and a HUGE baby elk at the side of the road (this was actually
leaving Twin Falls but I’m behind due to lack of wifi so I’m actually writing
this at our campsite waiting out the storm so it’s ready to post when I can
today). I thought we might see more,
especially in the Grand Canyon. As of the time of posting, we saw a coupe of antelope at the side of the road today and a deer eating grass in someone's front yard. He had his butt to toward us and since my car is silent he didn't hear us drive close. After a few minutes he stopped and turned toward us with a shocked expression then went about his business after determining we were harmless. lol
We have had a great trip so far, even with the
couple of mishaps from weather and crazy people, and it has been really nice to
spend some quality time again with my sister!
The numbers for day 5: I will update mileage soon, its getting late!
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Vanessa's blog: Travel the World History
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