Utah, Day 2... A Hawaiian Ghost Town

 Monday September2, 2024

      Roadtrip lesson learned many years ago.  If you're starting the day with a drive east, either get out well before sunrise, or wait until the sun is high enough to be blocked by the vehicle's visor.  

     The Knights Inn doesn't do breakfast.  So, after packing the truck, I killed a little time over breakfast at a place called Prospectors Cafe.  It's inside the Red Garter Casino and of course you have to walk through the gaming floor to get to it.  Decent breakfast.  This was on the table.  I passed.

      Today was all about the interesting things between Wendover and Ogden.  

     Across the interstate from the Bonneville Salt Flats rest stop yesterday sits another for the east bound traffic.  Somehow it just isn't the same.

      The first scheduled stop was a short detour south on Hwy 196 to a ghost town.  When I saw a BLM sign off to my right. I pulled off to investigate.

       It's a dirt road that leads back to you guessed it, that lone rock.

                   

     The road was hard packed and dry.  But, the ruts were still a bit deep by the highway.  Yeah, I was driving a pickup and probably could have made it up with ease.  But, it's still a rental. Beside, as one online reviewer put it, "it really is just a lone rock."

        This area is named Skull Valley.  The name references human remains discovered by the early settlers.  

      

      My quest for the morning was another couple of miles south to a place named Iosepa.

     The name Iosepa is the  Hawaiian form of the name Joseph.  It was named after Joseph F. Smith, nephew of the Mormon Church's founder Joseph Smith.  In the 1850's Joseph F. had travelled to Hawaii as a missionary.  Forty years later Hawaiians were finally allowed to emigrate to the Utah Territory.   

     Coming from a warm, lush climate, it was a big adjustment to Utah's winters and the desert conditions.  The community eventually would thrive.  But today, this is all that's left.

      The cemetery is still in use.  The most recent headstone is from 2023.

      On the drive back to the interstate, I pulled off at a place called Horseshoe Spring...

     That's where I saw this sign...

      The Hastings Cutoff was an part of the Oregon Trail bringing wagons trains full of settlers west to California.  

    The next stop was the site of the former Saltair Resort, one the more successful along the shores of the Great Salk Lake.  The original resort was built as a combined effort between the Mormon church and the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railway.  It was destroyed in a fire in 1925.

      The renovated resort would also burn down and be rebuilt.  The final version was reopened in 1981.  Months after reopening, the resort was flooded by high lake levels.  It was set to be abandoned for good in 2005.  

      It was saved by a group of investors who renovated it and reopened it as an entertainment venue.

   The venue parking lot was gated and closed.  But, there's plenty of roadside parking.  Based on the volume of people, and one horse crossing their property, they seem fine with it.  

    This is my third time in Utah, and my first actually walking out to the Great Salt Lake.  I saw a flash of lightning in the distance and heard thunder.  Walked out anyway.

    As for the horse... 

      What they were shooting was a mystery.  And while you see spots and stars  on the horse, it's just white on the other side.

     The model is also wearing an outfit festooned with stars.  That's her on the left side of the shot, three people in.

      The rain forecast gave me a few hours grace time.  It was too early to call it a day.  A quick search for trails offered a perfect hike to squeeze in.  

     Adams Canyon is a popular hike as witness the good sized, paved parking lot.  There are two waterfalls, upper and lower.  Hitting the upper falls might be a risk rainwise.   The lower falls are a mile and a half round trip.  Perfect.

       Still, it's a trail you earn.  It's a steady climb.

   While I was never good at judging distance on the trail, it felt a lot longer than 3/4 miles when I hit this junction.  

      Two guys were coming down the trail on the left.  They told me it was another forty minutes to the falls.  Turns out they meant the upper falls.  I had definitely gone too far.  

      I found a family's blog about the trail.  I was supposed to turn onto the unmarked trail by the wooden bench.   I found the turnoff and went off to the lower Adams Falls.

       There was a steep scramble from this point down to the base of the falls. I was fine stopping here.

     My home for the next few nights was the Temple View Inn in Ogden.  It would be a perfect central location for the next few days' hiking trails.  It was your basic independent motel.  Clean, just nothing special.

    And yes, you could see the Ogden Temple from the parking lot.

      One issue though.  I refilled my water bottle in the room.

    They gave me a different room.  This one had clear water.  They even gave me the number of the manager.  Of course he didn't call me back.

Utah, Day 1...Danger Cave

 Sunday September 1, 2024

   Since retiring last year, I find I'm no longer the night owl.  So, getting up and ready for an 8:15A flight was pretty easy.  It would also get me into Salt Lake City around 10:30A.  Assuming it's on time of course.  

      Call it a good omen, security was an absolute breeze.  I've made the walk to Terminal B many, many times.  Never gets old.

    

   The view from Gate B33...

     Not too shabby, eh.  

     The flight to Salt Lake City is three hours and forty minutes.  We got out before the rain and had an incredibly smooth flight, even landing on time.  As for my checked bag, it was just coming out on the carousel when I arrived.  

       The morning had one more thing up its sleeve.  AVIS was offering a free rental upgrade.  Instead of my Kia Soul, I could get a passenger van which seemed silly.  Or, I could get a Ford F-150 pickup.  How could I pass it up?  

     From the airport it was simply a straight shot west along I-80.

     Around mile marker 25, there's this curious sculpture...

     It's by Swedish sculptor Karl Momen.  There's no pullout, just that sign.  Momen calls it "Metaphor, The Tree of Utah."  He described it as "a hymn to our universe whose glory and dimension is beyond all myth and imagination."  

      Around mile marker 10, there's a rest stop alongside the Bonneville Salt Flats.  At the end of the last ice age, the northern third of Utah was covered by Lake Bonneville.  In this area, it was about one thousand feet deep.  The lake dried up over time, leaving a sixty square mile area of encrusted salt and minerals.  

    The salt flats, and by way of default the lake, were named after Col. Benjamin Bonneville.  Upon graduation from West Point, he was stationed in various frontier forts in Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri.  
     In 1832, he signed up for an exploratory mission west, which would be canceled due to a lack of staffing.  Instead, he took a leave of absence to join a privately funded excursion.  This would eventually take him into Wyoming, Idaho and Utah.  Along the way, his men would also discover and map what would become known as the California Trail, the route that would eventually serve the California Gold Rush.  

      These days the salt flats are more known for adventure seekers in very fast vehicles.   A few exits further is the Bonneville Raceway.  It's a section of the salt flats set aside for racing.  Quite a few land speed records have been broken here.  In August, Bonneville Nationals, Inc. hold an event where professionals and amateurs can come together and test their vehicles and nerves in an event called Speed Week.  

     This year, Alex Taylor and ISKY Cam arrived to make an attempt at one of the speed records.  The records are divided by vehicle and engine types.  Her team recorded her numerous attempts.  You can see them here.  Or, you can fast forward to 41:50 to see her World Record of 236MPH.  A motorcycle racer who goes by the nickname Flat Cap Racer broke the record for his class of motorcycle at this year's event as well.  You can see his two attempts here:  

     Racing isn't the only competition here.  Today was Day Two of the USA Archery Flight Nationals.   Unlike the competition you see in the Olympics, this isn't shooting at targets.  The winner in each class is the person who shoots their arrow the furthest.  

         West of the salt flats is the town of Wendover.  Like so many out here, it started out as a refueling and rewatering stop on the Western Pacific Railroad, even though there was no water available.  They decided a thirty mile water pipe was cheaper than rerouting the rail line.

     It was also the site of the final telephone poll erected for the first transcontinental telephone line, as well as the final connection in the first transcontinental  underground cable.  

      On the outskirts of town, you can also visit the Wendover Airfield.  During World War II, it was used as a bomber training base.  The most famous crew that trained here flew the Enola Gay.

     While Wendover is in Utah, West Wendover is in Nevada.  And that means casinos.  This is Wendover Will, originally created in 1952 for the Stateline Casino.  It's long gone, but Will  remains. 

     As for West Wendover, it's the only place in Nevada not in the Pacific Time Zone.  Considering its close relationship with Wendover, and being the only Nevada town for miles, it makes sense.  

      If I was driving the Soul, I might not have attempted my last stop.  The road out was partially paved. Some of it was decent dirt and gravel.  And some stretches not so much.  

      The first stop was a pullout on a road to a hilltop adorned with radio and cell towers.  Halfway up a gate blocks access.  Decent view.

     I was actually headed to a place called Danger Cave. 

       

        E.R. Smith started exploring the cave in 1951.  The excavation ended abruptly one day when a large rock fell over, narrowly missing his crew. Thus the name. That's the cave on the left..

     During the course of Smith's digging, he uncovered layers and layers or artifacts, some dating as far back as 13,000 years.  

      There are tours, but access is limited.  

      You can read an article about the site by Elaine Clark of KUER-fm and archeologist Ron Rood here:

     My home for the night was Wendover Knights Inn.  If you've ever stayed in this chain, it was typical.  No complaints though.

      Nice view.