We packed up our tent this morning and left the Grand Tetons as tiny specks in our rearview mirror. Luckily, we had many more miles of forests and mountains before we entered the way less exciting valleys of hay fields and dirt.
In case you ever plan to make the drive from Jackson to Park City, just be aware that there is literally nothing between the two cities. No where to go to the bathroom. No where to eat. And man, oh man, did it make me desperate for trees. And grass. I love green things, and there’s not a whole lot of that going on along that path.
But once we pulled into Park City (allowing both of us to cross Utah off our Great State Challenge list), it was beautiful! Trees, mountains, trees on mountains. Absolutely gorgeous.
I should point out that at this point in the trip, we hadn’t showered since Colorado (the hazards of camping), so we embarked on Park City smelly and in matching “Grand Teton National Park” hats to cover our nasty hair. Super cute.
We explored the city a bit, which is built in the mountains, rather than in the valley below the mountains, which I really enjoyed.
After some time in Park City, we decided to drive to Salt Lake City, since it’s only 30 minutes away. Little did we know that this would be the most terrifying drive of our trip, thus far. The road from Park City to Salt Lake City is a windy, downhill drive between the mountains. And the speed limit is terrifyingly fast. It was definitely a beautiful drive, but I was too busy sweating and clinging to the armrest to really enjoy it. Once we got to where we could actually see Salt Lake City from the interstate, we decided that we probably wouldn’t enjoy driving into a city that big during rush hour, so we would drive to the Great Salt Lake. Of course, since Salt Like City is named after the lake, we assumed the city would be on the lake. Completely false. The closest edge of the lake was about 20 minutes from the city, from what we could tell.
So we drove the 20 minutes to the Great Salt Lake. From inside the car, it was kind of pretty. Once we paid $2 to get into the marina and park, we discovered how horrible the Great Salt Lake really was. It smelled like rotten eggs. And there were gnats everywhere. Eric referred to this little visit as “the worst $2 I’ve ever spent.” It was really terrible, folks.
Now, I’m sure that there are areas of the Great Salt Lake that are really beautiful and smell like a summer breeze, but we did not experience those parts. We experienced the Great Sewer Lake. Nasty. Not a fan.
We quickly got back in the car and returned to the beautiful land of Park City, where we spent the night at a friend’s grandparents’ house with incredible views of the mountains. I really wish we had gotten to experience Park City in the winter. I think a beautiful town that only gets more beautiful with snow is a pretty great place to be. Honestly, Park City is our “I wouldn’t mind living here” pick of the trip.
Tomorrow we head to Idaho! Only 2 days of this big drive to go!
-Ally
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