Day 6: Salt Lake City, Utah to Elko, Nevada

Strange to wake up to snow flurries in Salt Lake City when it was 90 degrees yesterday. The stiff wind blew our belongings sideways as we tried to load the car. We made a couple of pit stops, mostly to take pictures of the amazing scenery which grew more spectacular as we rolled along. 

Greg and me braving gale force winds near the Great Salt Lake

The view from the road.

So many amazing scenes with trains. Check out the pile of salt in the picture below. That picture was taken from our car zipping along at the legal speed limit, 80 mph. It's a Morton plant near the Great Salt Lake.

We were amazed by the wide open beauty and the skies stretching onward.

The foreground above is made up of salt crystals.

We detoured off the route to visit the Bonneville Salt Flats, where people drive as fast as they dare. As we were eating our lunch in the car, a gold painted sports car sped by to test the limits of the flats. Later, we took a spin in the rental car. The record on the Bonneville Salt Flats is 503 miles an hour -- set by the Turbinator 2, not our rental, which barely pushed 60 mph.

Our rental

The Turbinator

Below, Greg and I in Elko, Nevada. We chose it because it was about as far as we wanted to go, but it turned out to be a cool town with a retro vibe. It's a railroad town with a strong sense of heritage and some very tasty take-out Mexican food.

Here's the map showing today's progress. Tomorrow we head to Lake Tahoe.