Bonneville Salt Flats and leaving SLC

The Bonneville Salt Flats were on Kenneth's list of must see things while we were in the area.  Since Wednesday was 96 degrees and the Flats were a two hour drive, we opted to take the truck and not the motorcycle.  We packed a picnic lunch, some drinks and took off!  We passed the Great Salt Lake and some beautiful scenery to get there.  The last ten miles or so coming into the Flats is a pretty desolate area called the Great Salt Lake Desert and people have put all kinds of things out near the road to keep drivers entertained!  Names, dates, peace sign, Kilroy, a shark fin, head and tail, a snake (I was able to catch a pic of that one) and some other things that made the drive fun.  Once there, we just posted up, ate our lunch and watched other people drive out onto the Flats and do their donuts or see how fast they could go.  Of course, Kenneth got out and talked to several people, one of whom was the manager of the track.  He had a crew at the very end working to get ready for some time trials coming up.  Apparently they had events the weekend before and the weekend after, but there is really nowhere there for crowds to set up and watch unless they bring it in the day of the event or you bring your own chairs.  He told Kenneth we could drive as far as we wanted, just stay to the left of the blue cones.  The right side is the race track and it was noticeably in better condition than the left.  There was also a group we saw and the guy told Kenneth that was a group planning a wedding...race people...:)  We drove out, got our pics and went as fast as the truck would let us.  We bought it used and it has a governor on it that won't let you go faster than 96 which is plenty fast. He had fun and that's all I wanted.  

Thursday morning we took off to ride through some ski resort areas and to a different H-D shop.  I have decided that Utah has been my favorite state so far...the beautiful landscape here is just a sight to be seen.  The ski resorts were so pretty this time of year.  I bet all the ski customers they get don't have a clue what they're missing just like I don't know what I'm missing by not seeing them covered with snow!  Everyone we've met has been so nice and helpful - just a great experience.  On our way back to the camper, the smoke was getting thicker so we decided to leave a day early and head south.  Our campground in Hatch, Utah said we could come in on Friday instead of Saturday so we pulled out Friday morning and about halfway down I-15 we finally outran the smoke.  So happy we did because we woke up this morning to 47 degrees and a beautiful blue sky for our ride today.  We waited until 10:30 when it was 67 degrees before we headed out.  I can't wait to post those pics!!

Thursday morning headed out for our ride.

I really like the H-D shops that have character!

Great Salt Lake with a salt beach

Big piles of salt everywhere.  Someone told us they pull the magnesium out of it.

Great Salt Lake Desert

The snake in the desert along with a pot of flowers.  This drive that would've been so boring was fun!

The wedding planners

We took pics for another couple and they took ours.  They were from California and said their house was fine, but they just had to take a break from the smoke.  We've met a lot of people doing that.

Salt Flats in front and behind as far as you could see!

The salt is hard as concrete and it's like it has sand on it which, of course, is salt.  I read somewhere that it's as thick as 5' in some places and only a few inches in others.  It's really like no other place I've ever been much like this whole trip has been!!!

The track manager told Kenneth that mountain behind him was 17 miles away!

Yep...he enjoyed this...:)

Great Salt Lake again

He wanted some fried chicken and look what we found all the way up here in Utah...Louisiana Kitchen!!

These are all from our Thursday ride through East Canyon State Park.  The elevation on a sign we passed was 7200'.

Leaving SLC Friday morning.  You can barely make out the mountains the smoke had gotten so bad.

South Utah...we've gotten out of the smoke!  The wildflowers in this state have been really pretty, too.

We're at The Riverside Ranch RV Park and it's just a short walk to the river from our campsite. Another awesome place to set up our home away from home for a few days!