I-80 (Day 3) - Utah (Leg 3)

Utah is a beautiful state even though I was in the uglier part of it. It smelled like rotten eggs. This is no joke. It was the oddest thing. And it's sad I mean I would be lovely if you could say "My home town, just smells like baked apples." When does that ever happen?

I woke and got on the road early. I wanted to stop at the Salt Flats and the Bonneville Speedway (Salt Flat where every year some land speed record or another is broken).

Stop 1. Salt Flats. It's so blindingly white. And I was so tempted to lick the ground to see how salty it really was. I was terrified of getting some odd bacteria and did not attempt any ground licking...although I hope to remedy this some day.

Stop 2. Bonneville Speedway. About 6 miles off of 80W. This was by far the most bizarre stop on my trip...well, almost.

It was strange. The 6 mile stretch from 80 to the "entrance" I saw trailers or mobile homes. And they were lined all along the highway on the salt flats. People had clothes drying and lawn chairs and grills set up. It looked like a carnival people's outpost to be honest. There were also tents set up all along the flats. They didn't look big enough to hold a dog let alone a person but there were several so I suspect there were very small people - (suspicion was confirmed by the amount of small 20s and 30s cars I saw being driven along the road as well - so small only miniature type people could be occupying them.). It really was surreal. I wanted to take pictures but thought they'd come after me with being "insensitive" for documenting the "odd freakishness" of the whole thing.

When I reached the end of this 6 mile stretch there was a small tent set up with orange cones around it (kind you'd buy at Walgreen's- serious). And there was a family: mom, dad, small boy - asking for $5 so you could park and/or drive around on the speedway.

I thought "is this legal? does the state of Utah sanction this?" I didn't care so much to ask so I parked before I reached them looked around and left. It was for sure strange and mildly interesting, but not $5 worth of interesting.

Pictured above was the pay "entrance" to the what? national park? Who knows. I do know Nevada was my next destination...