On my planning day I decided that I would shoot to make it all the way to Park City that night – a long day of driving, 650 miles, eleven hours. It’s possible I’ve never driven that far in one day. The ranch/B&B was more a place to break up the trip than a stop I really wanted to make. So it was okay to miss it. It was also okay to miss I-80 – I saw a dotted line on the map and followed some advice to take I-50, which is supposed to be a more scenic way across the state. It’s also nicknamed “the loneliest road in America.” My mantra was “Basin and Range, Basin and Range, Basin…….and Range” – I was so excited about it that I wrote a fan letter to John McPhee. And got an answer once I got to Chicago! He noted that it came from off I-80 – oops. But it did come from Basin and Range!
There was some snow on the mountaintops and occasionally a dusting on the ground. The road was smooth, the land I was going through unpopulated. I stopped at a park to see some petroglyphs – so someone used to live here. They just don’t now. There was an occasional ranch and an occasional small town – but thrilled with going through basin and range, I never felt overwhelmed or isolated. I’d go through a basin, then I’d cut through a range. This is a part of the continent that is young, with mountains coming up, and ranges spreading out between them.
I made good time, but it was still a long day, and it was late afternoon when I headed north and rejoined I-80. And around Ely, which is the nearest city to the B&B/ranch where I would have stayed, I got pulled over for speeding. I hadn’t been gunning it; was it a speed trap? It doesn’t matter. I suspect that every cross-country trip includes a speeding ticket, breakdown or the like – this was my ticket of the trip. I determined not to get another. I decided not to stop in Ely though – no dinner break. So on my longest day of driving I snacked in the car instead. Well, another element of a cross-country road trip, right? I was glad I planned to stop driving before dark for the other days, and that I had destinations and friends a day apart for the rest of the way. I still don’t regret the snow day in Lake Tahoe – it was a peaceful day, and I hadn’t seen snow like that in a while!
It was dark when I got to Winnemucca, on the border with Utah – and another place with the incongruous sight of border casinos and big hotels. Not much more to the town! What would Nevada be without casino gambling? Or if casino gambling were as readily available in every state? Las Vegas by now is probably enough of an entertainment, warm-weather and dining attraction that tourists would still come, and maybe they would go to Reno too, if only to go to Lake Tahoe, but Winnemucca wouldn’t be much if Utah had casinos. Then again, Utah is unlikely to get casinos.
Welcome to Mountain Time! I still had several hours of driving to go. I don’t feel I missed out on that much by skipping the B&B/ranch, but I did miss something that I would have loved to have seen in the light of day – the Bonneville Salt Flats. I went right by them, in the dark. They’re just far enough away from my friends in Park City that unless I do this drive again I’m unlikely to get back there to see them. But you never know. I picture the ultimate in flatness and a brilliant white. I don’t know that I would have tried for any speed records, though…. I also might have stopped to see the Great Salt Lake. I have to check my journals – I feel I have seen it, but maybe I just think I’ve seen it. It’s not that close to Salt Lake City, and it’s in the other direction from the mountains where I usually go when I visit. It’s a good thing I keep my calendars and take so many pictures – and have a good memory. But things do sometimes run together, and impressions can be blurry. So I’m not sure if I’ve seen it; I know I would have stopped this time. Well, maybe I just have to build the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats into the next Utah trip and remove all doubt!
Salt Lake City was the biggest city in a while – I suppose the biggest since leaving the Bay Area, so the biggest in days – and approaching at night meant lots of lights, which felt welcoming. Also welcoming was the stretch from the city to Park City – it’s been a while, but I’ve been there several times, and it felt familiar. I’ve not done a whole lot of mountain driving, but I have driven that stretch, and I’ve driven it at night – with snow on the mountains and enough moonglow (or city-light glow), seeing the shapes of the mountains as you wind through them is quite romantic. And arriving at the home of friends meant I was energized, not tired – we talked until late!
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