Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah

First of all, note to self: “Call ahead before leaving!”  Now I will explain.  We had planned for months to attend the World of Speed at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  We spent countless hours customizing our enclosed trailer for the journey and comfort while on the salt flats.  So, we headed out on the nine hour drive…destination…Wendover (the town near the Salt Flats.)  After we arrived at our hotel and dashed rain showers, I decided to check the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association website to see what kind of damper all the rain has had on the racing.  Well, to my surprise, they cancelled the whole week of racing because the salt flats were under water! Not just a few puddles here and there, but a virtual lake.

 

Here are some pictures of the salt flats area with all the water.

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As you can see, unless they had an air boat category, no racing was going to take place.  We decided to make the best of it and spend a couple days taking in the sites around the area.  First, we decided to drive the 50 mile loop around the Silver Island Mountains that line the salt flats.  It got a little muddy in some areas.

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Here’s the small town of Wendover.  This small town is interesting because it straddles the Utah-Nevada border.  There are casinos on the Nevada side and no gambling allowed on the Utah side.  There is literally a line across the highway delineating the state borders.

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The terrain was pretty cool.

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Thankfully, we had one day without rain, so we took the four wheelers back to the Silver Island Mountains to explore the trails that we saw going off the main road.  We ended going about 30 miles.

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The first trail we went up was pretty steep.  Here are some pictures of the view.

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Not sure what kind of rocks these are, but they had rings through them.

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We were not alone.  Say “hello” to my little friend.

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Notice the “curl” line on this mountain.  That is where the waves of the ancient Lake Bonneville lapped.

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Even though our plans were changed, we still had fun and enjoyed the scenery.  Needless to say, everywhere we went to escape the rain, it seemed to follow us.  Unfortunately, Colorado took the blunt of all the rain.  Prayers to all those affected by the floods.

 

 





 

 

 

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