Desert Journey...

After a rough night at the "Mesa View" motel, we were ready to get on the road early. Kenna slept terribly, and Logan and I didn't sleep much better. We packed the car, and headed down the road. God must have been smiling down on us, because he placed a Starbucks in our path that just happened to be open at 5am. (Praise the Lord, thank you Starbucks employees!) We got breakfast and got back on the road headed toward Salt Lake City.

 

Sunrise outside of Palisade, CO

 

 

As we headed further from Colorado and neared Utah, the snow covered peaks quickly changed into much more red rock and plateaus. They were beautiful. With the sun rising behind us, they were in beautiful light.



 

We drove all the way through the Salt Lake Desert, through the amazing salt flats, past the Morton salt plant, (so cool!) past the Bonneville Speedway, and into Nevada.  To say we were driving through the desert was an understatement. We went through areas with little to zero plants... and when we did see foliage, it was nothing more than small shrubs and sage.

 

 The salt flats were amazing- it literally looked like snow on the ground. We couldn't believe it. The temperature had gone from 49 degrees in Colorado Springs two days ago to 95 degrees... and it was HOT.

 

After exiting the Salt Lake Desert, we stopped on a back road for Kenna to run around and check out the scenery. Everything smelled like sage and evergreens, it was amazing.

 

The plan was to drive to Salt Lake City, but we were actually able to make it to Elko, NV, where we had a fabulous dinner at a place called "The Star", which served authentic Basque food. This was new to both Logan and I. They started us off with soup, salad and bread. . .  All of which was included in the price of our meal. I got King Crab legs, and Logan got filet mignon which was out of this world.  Our dinner was cut short by a fussy Kenna, who is working on getting another molar!

 

We headed back to the room after I indulged myself with fro-yo at a place called "Spoon Me!"

 

Tomorrow will be the last day of our trek westward. We have 440 miles to go until we reach our destination, the place where our real adventures of the summer will begin!