 |
| Having a marg in Winnemucca, NV! |
Sometimes the best part of a vacation are the things you never anticipated.
The next major stop on our trip is Steamboat Springs, but that is a 17-18 hour drive from Crater Lake. We prefer to keep our driving to about 6 hours per day, so we decided to split it into three driving days. Along that route, the only town of any size ~6 hours from Crater Lake is Winnemucca, Nevada, so that was our first destination as an overnight-only stop. Salt Lake City is six hours from Winnemucca, so we decided to spend a day experiencing Utah and Salt Lake City before heading to Steamboat Springs.
 |
| Our route from Shady Cove, OR to Steamboat Springs, CO |
We left our AirBnB at 9:30, starting on beautiful Oregon Route 140. We drove through the southern portion of the Cascade Mountain Range (the same range we saw in the Columbia River Gorge) and the Fremont-Winema national forest into Nevada, where the road cleverly turns into Nevada Route 140. The drive on Oregon 140 was beautiful, pine covered mountains with snowy peaks (we could see Mt. McLoughlin in the distance). The changes in landscape were amazing - lush, forest covered mountains, then arid buttes with sage and scrub. The drive was very rural, mostly desolate, until we got to our overnight stop, Winnemucca, NV.
Some pictures below:
 |
Pool at our hotel
|
We didn’t have any expectations for Winnemucca, especially on the 4th of July - we were mostly looking for a place to sleep and get up and drive again the next day. The hotel was new and the staff was friendly, they gave us a few dinner recommendations and told us the Winnemucca fireworks display would be at a park right near the hotel and we’d have a perfect viewing spot from the hotel pool area. We took the opportunity to do some laundry in the free laundry facility at the hotel. We went out for Mexican food at a local Mexican restaurant,
Chihuahuas, that was surprisingly good. We went back and hung out at the pool. We met a nice couple from London that were in the middle of their own adventure across the USA, and a family from northern Utah there for the
junior rodeo championship - there were quite a few junior rodeo participants at the hotel. It was interesting talking to them about the junior rodeo circuit, something we had never even heard of. We hung out at the pool with the rodeo family and watched the Winnemucca fireworks display, which was quite good for such a small town. We ended up really enjoying our time in Winnemucca, mostly because of the interesting people we met during our stay.
 |
| Fireworks from the pool! |
 |
| A little too much Dulce Vida... |
 |
| Wildlife Crossing |
We slept in a bit the next day before continuing to Salt Lake City, this time on I-80, the interstate highway. We’d done a lot of driving so far - we just crossed the 4500 mile mark as we headed into Winnemucca. We didn’t think I-80 would be very interesting here, I’ve never been this far west on it before as we typically stopped in Colorado, but generally it's not an exciting interstate to drive on. How wrong we were! The changes in landscape were striking - we went through some very cool mountain tunnels, and saw something we hadn't seen before - wildlife crossings, bridges over the interstate with the sole purpose of allowing wildlife safe passage over the road. This eventually led us to the Salt Lake Desert - a vast barren landscape, home of the Bonneville Salt Flats. I’ve heard of the salt flats but never seen them, and they are something to behold - just miles and miles of white salt deposits with virtually nothing growing on them. The scenery changed back to mountains as we reached Salt Lake City, and we had a beautiful view of the city as we headed in from the West.
 |
| Bonneville Salt Flats |
We splurged on our AirBnB in Salt Lake City. The treehouse, as it’s called, is built into the side of a mountain and billed as a deluxe AirBnB with four decks and incredible views of the city and mountains. It did not disappoint! Some pictures below:
 |
| Sunset from our AirBnB Deck overlooking Salt Lake City and surrounding mountains |
Since we had arrived later in the day, we made dinner (
Almost Vegan Enchiladas and a salad - delicious!) and planned our next day.
We had planned to spend one day in Salt Lake City, but were not sure what to do. We'd read that SLC has one of the largest farmers markets in the country, so we decided to head there on Saturday morning and explore the downtown area. The farmers market was indeed huge and impressive - it took up an entire city block and had food, produce, arts and crafts, a bit of everything.
 |
| Mural in downtown Salt Lake City |
What really struck us was the character of Salt Lake City. I always assumed SLC would be super-Mormon and super-conservative. The Mormon church is headquartered in SLC and occupies an entire section of the city known as
Temple Square - the Temple and other buildings are quite impressive. But SLC was not super-Mormon and super-conservative, in fact it reminded us a bit of Austin. I learned that SLC has really changed over the last 20 years - while Mormon's used to be the majority in SLC, now they comprise only about 30% of the residents, and while SLC was 90% white 20 years ago, now it is 35% minority, comprised of many different ethnicities. The city has a major emphasis on diversity and inclusion and is quite welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community, something else I did not expect. It even has a bit of a hipster vibe to it! We had a delicious neapolitan-style margherita pizza at
Settebello's Pizzeria for lunch and then toured the downtown area.
We headed back to our AirBnB, made Aloo Gobi for dinner (quite good!) and enjoyed our last night in the Treehouse.
On Sunday we headed off to Steamboat Springs, our next major destination. The drive through Park City Utah, where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held, was spectacular, as the Rocky Mountains started coming into view. We went through a number of quaint small towns like Heber City and Duchesne City, that all had unique and special character - we even went through Craig, Colorado, and took the opportunity to capture a photo. While we originally thought these driving days would be a quickly forgotten part of the trip, we really enjoyed the journey!
But now we can't wait for Steamboat Springs and the opportunity to reunite with family. Until then....
On Sunday we headed off to Steamboat Springs, our next major destination. The drive through Park City Utah, where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held, was spectacular, as the Rocky Mountains started coming into view. We went through a number of quaint small towns like Heber City and Duchesne City, that all had unique and special character - we even went through Craig, Colorado, and took the opportunity to capture a photo. While we originally thought these driving days would be a quickly forgotten part of the trip, we really enjoyed the journey!
Comments
Post a Comment