Departure: Aurora, CO - May 12, 9:45am MST

Arrival: SLC, UT - May 12, 7:00pm MST

Miles: ~540 miles

Towns: So small, I couldn’t tell you the name of any

See the Photos

We set out from Chip’s place decently early. I had decided to continue on I-70 for a more scenic route, so we traced over parts from the day before, swerving through the mountains and experiencing 5-7% downhill grades. 99.9 mpg is pretty sweet. The views of the peaks and valleys were spectacular. If I weren’t so nervous about driving off the side of a cliff, I would have hung my head out the window. Luckily, I had gotten a chance to see some of the views as a passenger the day before. Our route through was full of ear-popping of course.

We drove past several darling little towns speckled here & there. A few were offering up hot springs and others gambling. It was surreal to think about living in one of these places. They seemed so disconnected, or for now, until we saw true desolation in Utah. We passed by Glenwood Springs, which is where the famous Hanging Lake is, which I had debated stopping at, but we were short on time (and energy) for the estimated 2-hour hike it required. However, Glenwood Canyon was probably one of my favorite views of the trip. We swirled through the bottom of the canyon, running alongside the Colorado River with train tracks on the other side. Eastbound traffic ran underneath of us for most of it. It was just a beautiful site with the reddish rocks and formations towering above us. I hope our video footage passing through turns out.

We took a slight detour at De Beque, passing on to 45 1/2 Rd (Colorado loves 1/2 roads). This road literally snaked through the rocky terrain. There was a single sign at the start that said “Curves next 9 miles”. The direction of each individual curve was a surprise as you came up to it. There wasn’t much in the way of railings, and we had passed over a turned over gate to enter the area, as it was marked “Open Range.” Sadly we saw few animals. I had Adam film the entire strip of road as Holiday handled the curves with ease. I was so nervous about the road that I forgot to turn on my Sport button for tighter handling. It was still fun! I’m hoping to share the footage on the Mini Owner’s lounge. Once we left the open range area, we joined up with the Grand Mesa Scenic and Historic Byway, which was still curvy but with signs. We stopped along the side of the road where there was a view of the river. That’s where most the photos are from. There were huge sandstone-like formations alongside the river and speckling of colorful rocks and minerals. I grabbed a few specimens, hoping they turn out to be something not in my collection. We had some people drive by & honk. I’m not sure if we were being heckled, greeted, or honored as Mini motorers. It’s so hard to tell.

As we neared the edge of Utah, we literally saw the side of some hills come to an abrupt stop. We also passed the immediate aftermath of one of the most horrible wrecks I’ve ever seen. We didn’t think it was possible that the people had lived. It was a humbling moment as we continued along.

I really had no expectations for Utah, but it turned out to hold some surprises. It rained pretty steadily on us for the first hour or so inside the state line. It was a 50/50 mix of open, rocky land and plateaus. The spotting of any civilization was a rare sight in the southern part of the state. We passed by the exit for the arched land formations, but weren’t sure how far away they were. Had it been beautiful & sunny, I likely would have taken my chances.

As we got further north, the landscape changed drastically. The mountains became blanketed in grass and trees. They just looked friendly, as weird as that may sound. Adam & I both kind of preferred them to what we saw in Colorado. They were spaced out more and just easier to appreciate. Very beautiful. We had read in the AAA book something about Utah being discovered as some jewel, which I was thinking was a bunch of crap until we got to this part of the state. It was gorgeous.

As we got closer to SLC, you could see the city skyline nestled perfectly against the mountains. It was probably one of the prettiest little daytime cityscapes I had seen (best photo I could find). The city was much smaller than I expected. However, it was plenty complicated to navigate. Going around the block required going around like 6 blocks due to the amtrak that negated left turns off an entire stretch of road. We finally arrived at our hotel which bordered up against Temple Square. It turned out to be a great location. In the short drive to our hotel, I noticed masses of tulips around the city. It was very clean and nice.

For dinner we ventured a few blocks from our hotel (initially starting off in the wrong direction but we saw more of the city). We went to this place called Squatter’s Pub. The atmosphere was awesome. Adam noted it was what the interior of MS should look like. Our food was great! It seems we were near the university which explained all the cool-looking young people. All I could think about was SLC Punk, and how maybe it wasn’t far off-base. It was dark when we walked back but the city was all lovely and lit up. It was a pleasant walk back and the temples lit up at night were gorgeous.

It was a surprisingly nice evening in SLC. The forecast had said it would be rainy, but it was sunny and in the 60s. I was excited about our 3 ft tall beds in the hotel and being on the 10th floor, so we would hear no bums brawling (which reminds of something I forgot in the last post. oops).