was to do the drive in 2.5 days getting us to Salt Lake City by Thursday. We were staying with my cousin Megan in Park City about 20 minutes outside of Salt Lake. We wanted to be there for
the Halloween weekend in order to dress up and go out with her reveling in some holiday fun. The two stops that we had planned along the way were to visit Lake Tahoe then make a pit stop in the Biggest Little City in the World - Reno Nevada. I don't know about you, but every time I hear those words I can't help but think of them in a Bruce Buffer kind of voice announcing the venue of a
title fight or something like that. Anyway, when we woke up in the mountains on Wednesday morning we were about an hour away from Tahoe. We didn't really have anything planned for the area but we both felt that it is just one of those places that you have to visit when you're doing the type of trip we are. There is a road that circles the entire lake and this was our plan: to take the
road around the lake and hopefully make some stops along the way depending on what we saw. We pulled out at a few lookouts near a Emerald Bay which had a gorgeous waterfall flowing into
it and a island smack in the middle as well. Almost directly across the lake from this point we stopped again to do a short, 1 mile hike through some really neat rock formations and got some beautiful views of Lake Tahoe. We sat for a while on one of the boulders just looking out over the lake and enjoying our relaxing day. From there we moved on into town and stopped for lunch at a small little Mexican restaurant then carried on down the road
toward Reno. Reno wasn't joking in the tag line "the biggest little city," this place was small. The strip seemed to have no more than 6 casino's on it and the moment you veered off the beaten path you felt like you were in an industrial area or something. Not that we had expected much and since neither Katie nor myself are gamblers, we didn't plan on staying here long anyway. We parked the car at one end of the strip walked it up and down amidst many heckles from bums asking for change, visited one souvenir shop,
then left. The stop was good if for nothing else than to get us out of the car for a bit and walk around. After Reno we made almost no stops. Megan had requested that we pick up some New Belgium beer for her because since she lives in Utah, you can't find it anywhere. For the rest of the day, as Katie and I stopped for gas we would search super markets and liquor stores in search of the beer she wanted. Even in Nevada the pickings are slim and we had a little bit of trouble finding some. The majority of our day was spent driving through the desert. The scenery was beautiful and the driving was fast. We were in a flat valley 90% of the drive but there was still mountains all around you to look at. The speed limit was 75 mph but everyone drove about 85 mph owing to the fact that you could see for miles and miles ahead of you in the flat nothingness. We drove until we crossed the Utah border then stopped at a rest area in the Utah salt flats for the night.
Today, Thursday, we slept in a little bit, feeling no need to start the day since we had nothing planned for it. The rest area we were at also had a nice canopy which blocked out the morning sun from creeping in our windows, so we were undisturbed during our morning laziness. We
awoke to find the Bonneville salt flats all around us stretching for miles until they reached the mountains. It felt like it had snowed in bizzaro world. The mountains were bare, showing their brownish red hue while the valley before us was covered in what seemed to be snow, completely converse to the snow tipped mountains we just passed through in the Sierra's. We
also realized, via an informational board at the rest area, that the salt flats around us were the location of the land speed records set back in the 60's and 70's as well as the spot that linked the first every transcontinental telegram line. After our brief morning history lesson we carried on down the road admiring the beautiful Utah landscape surrounding us. We reached the Salt Lake area around noon and realized we had a lot of time to waste before Megan got off work. This thought was quickly pushed out of my head as I noticed I was being pulled over by the highway patrol. What happened is a boring and uneventful encounter which I will not recount in detail here. Basically the cop got out of his car, talked with us for 2 minutes, then gave us a warning without even going to his car to verify our info. I'm pretty sure he was just bored and was looking for something to do. After our run-in with the law, we consulted our Atlas and discovered that there was the Timpanogos Cave National Monument a few miles outside of Salt Lake City. It was another cave, one that sounded really big and fun to explore. We figured here we could waste several hours exploring underground and never be bored. We passed the entrance gate, glad to see that our parks pass was valid here, then reached the site of the cave to discover it was devoid of people. The thought that a cave would be closed for the season had never crossed our minds and it was a hard reality to soak into our heads. Caves are controlled environments. They fluctuate little, sometimes not at all, depending on the weather outside, so how could it be closed you ask? Apparently there is a 1.5 mile hike up the mountain to reach the cave and though it is a wide path, the inclines are steep and the drop off is deadly. The area having already had their first big snow of the year, we missed the cave being open by just over a week. After we had been looking at the off season info that was still posted outside for about 5 minutes, a park ranger came passing by and explained all of this to us. She also said that since
we were in a National Forest, there were other trails still open, but she didn't recommend doing them without snow shoes. We also found out from her that there is a scenic drive that is worth while, but it too was closed for the season. Finally, she told us about a lake a little ways up the road that was a pretty spot to drive to. We decided to settle on this, it being our only viable option. When we got to the lake we noticed we weren't alone. There was around 10 people scattered around the lake, some fishing, others just sitting soaking up the beautiful
mountain scenery. We decided to join the latter, pulled out our camping chairs, our books, and a beer a piece. It was great. We got to truly relax for the first time in a while, burning time until Megan got off work. Now I'm sure as I say "truly relax" many of you scuffed your noses at that statement assuming our whole trip has been nothing but relaxing. Though I admit that is partly true, the few moments of silent immobility that we enjoy are usually dedicated to updating this blog, writing postcards, or Katie's scrap-booking. Now by no means is this a complaint, nor do I think we have it rough by any stretch of the imagination, but it was just nice to sit and read outside with nothing on our minds but the books before us and the cool mountain breeze surrounding us. After enjoying an hour or so of this peaceful bliss we packed up and headed back to the city. We got CJ a long anticipated oil change, marking the fact that we have already driven over 20,000 miles since leaving Michigan. By the time we got into downtown Salt Lake, we only had one hour left to waste before Megan got off work. I wanted to see the Temple Square, so we began to search around downtown for it. In any guidebook or picture that I have seen of this temple, the thing just looks massive. Actually, as we pulled into Salt Lake City I kept peaking over at the skyline expecting it to be popping out the way that the Sears Tower or the John Hancock do in Chicago, but saw nothing. Even as we got closer into the city and began seeing signs for it, I still averted my eyes skyward hoping to see spires through the gaps of buildings. But when we finally reached the Temple Complex I finally realized why it had not been visible... it's small! Not tiny, but by no means massive. I am sure that any European cathedral would beat it in both height and girth. After this disappointing revelation I didn't even feel the need to get out and walk around and since Katie had never cared about it in the first place, we decided to move on. As we were driving toward the temple we saw something that neither of us expected to see in Salt Lake: a brewery! We decided to stop at Red Rock Brewery and wait for Megan to give us a call. We split a personal pizza to curb our appetites
and Megan called shortly after. She was dog sitting for a friend the whole weekend and needed to take care of the dog for a bit, but she let us into her place where we got to shower and freshen up before heading into public again. Megan has been following our blog and noticing a common theme suggested another brewery in downtown Park City for dinner. It was the Wasatch Brewing Company and it had some of the most interesting beer we had had on the trip yet. I got a jalepeno cream beer and Katie and Megan enjoyed an amazing pumpkin beer. After our dinner we headed back to Megan's place and quickly went to bed; Katie and I had big plans for the next morning and Megan still had to work Friday.
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