Onwards from Yellowstone

The journey from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City was almost due south for just over 300 miles. The drive was largely through farming land – one area, Ashton, claimed to be the biggest producer of seed potatoes. Wikipedia explains that the short growing season keeps the potatoes desirably small and the long, cold winters create the ideal conditions for seed. We did see a fair few along the way being watered by the ever present huge sprinklers.

We glimpsed the Tetons in the distance as we drove past.

I was quite disappointed that there weren’t little communities to break up the journey. We tried Idaho Falls and ended up at a Wendy’s again as the Mexican place we found didn’t really look very inspiring and didn’t seem keen to serve us (and there were no other customers which is always ominous!!) It’s quite possible that our experience would have been better had we taken a different exit off the freeway: you live and learn! At least we got Wendy’s lemonade for the remainder of the trip.

Driving in to Salt Lake City was my first experience of big roads since Denver and it was early evening when we got there, so not much fun on busy roads when you don’t know where you are. I was surprised the area was so hilly.

We found the hotel fairly easily and were grateful for both free parking and breakfast included. Having decided to have a look at the city centre in the morning we set off after breakfast to find the centre of the Mormon faith. Another disappointment! Although there is a small part of the city centre which seems to be a memorial to Brigham Young and the founders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there was no real evidence of their influence.

Sadly, having rung the bell at the entrance, we were told very politely that the Temple was not open to the general public. Two young ladies we met later suggested that we should go further along the road and visit the Tabernacle, which is where the famous choir performs, but we didn’t really have time, so headed back to the mall’s free car park to begin our onward drive to Moab.

Once we had navigated Salt Lake City’s very own version of Birmingham’s Spaghetti Junction and were away from the city limits this was a much easier drive with some interesting scenery but no real opportunity to stop for photographs. We stopped briefly to read some information about the coal industry and the railway lines in one of those information pull outs that the Americans are so good at using to share historical facts and were intrigued by the number of extremely long cargo trains we passed without ever seeing a passenger version!

We knew that for Arches National Park we needed a timed permit for a visit before 4pm but after that it was possible to drive through, so that was our aim before continuing the drive south to Bryce Canyon the next day.

I was so occupied with the changes the light made to different areas of the park that I forgot we were in Arches and supposed to be looking for the Delicate Arch. We did see it in the distance but just at the time we were beginning to feel we should leave so as not to drive the somewhat hazardous bends near the exit in the dark.

There were bonuses!

The balanced rock is regarded as the highlight here but I loved the one on the left which looks a bit like the profile of an elephant’s head.

And there would be much more to follow in the days ahead.

So we hit the road again the next morning, deciding, with some regrets, not to visit Canyonlands but to head straight for Bryce Canyon which is where I’m writing this.