The Desert, the Mountains, Salt and the Road

Zoo found another winner today. After discovering we had 35 miles of construction between us and Salt Lake City, he chose a road north that connected with the arm of the salt flats we wanted to hit. Below are images from just before we left paved road, to an unmapped (by Google) dirt road, Nevada to Utah to Nevada to Utah and then back onto the highway again and into the city limits of Salt Lake City.

Another fine find, Zoo. Excellent roads. Tons of photos after the break:

Zoo almost stepped on a Horny Toad! (LOL..)

And he scampered away...

In Utah, beliefs can make mountains float like clouds...

The Most Amazing Road on Earth

When Zoo and I headed out on our 1st road trip from LA to Denver, we made on little side trip in Arizona. We cut north of the mountains to get to Sedona and ended up in Jerome - high up on the rim of the mountains surrounding the area. It started with a cattle gate and ended during dusk. It was a moving experience and I exclaimed THAT was the best road I had ever been on. Scratch that. (It was and still is amazing...) Today, we took a side road that cut through Humboldt National Forest. It starts in southern Idaho and ends 40'ish miles north of Elko, NV. It changed my life, and we guess that no more than 10,000 people have ever seen what we saw today.

Gobs of photos after the jump.  First we drove past the Salmon River Reservoir: 

and on into the Bruneau Desert flats

And then into a jaw-dropping canyon. And I mean CANYON. 

Zoo took a moment to throw a stone...

And then, since I was driving this leg, into the base of the canyon. We drove along at 20 mph, wondering how far it really was to Jarbidge, because we were nearing a half tank of gas... Nothing like a little uncertainty to make you enjoy things more ;)

So we stopped and shot up into the canyon walls a few times. Zoo said, "Fuck Arches! [National Park) And fuck the tourists! This is awesome." I soooo agree.

After stopping for lunch and gas (what a relief) in Jarbidge (see post) Zoo took the wheel and we drove higher and higher...

When I dreamed of road tripping this time of year, I saw in my mind's eye the aspen and birches turning yellow... and I got it. Stunning.

And the landscape changed for the third time. Now the mountains were carpeted with scattered trees.

And then the landscape changed yet again, now getting into desert-like conditions with jutting rocks on mountainsides here and there...

And then Hunboldt ended.

The desert became even more desert-like. The mountains squashed down into hills.

We were on private land, and cattle ranches surrounded us... but not much cattle.

 

And then 5 1/2 hours later, we hit pavement again. Did I mention that it was 95% dirt roads? Yeah, that's a road trip! 

Dirty Hyundai. Love ya!

See the whole trip as time-lapse