Westward Bound-DAY FIVE

SLOWING OUR PACE

The sun on the mountains around Salt Lake City was amazing this morning! The city sits at about 4,300' in elevation, but many 8,000' and 9,000' peaks make for a cool backdrop to the downtown skyline.  For the first time on our trip, the weather was beautiful, with no snow, wind, rain or dust to be seen.

Our first stop this morning was to visit the World's First KFC franchise, in Murray, Utah, a suburb of SLC. It was started in 1952 (no we did not have KFC for breakfast), by the famous Col. Sanders.

After departing our early am visit to KFC, we decided to take a few extra hours today and do some exploring around SLC. One of the areas we both wanted to see was the Great Salt Lake. Tyler had wanted to see if we could find a place to see some "Wild Bison." on our trip. We discovered that one of only three free roaming herds in the U.S. was right here, on an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, called Antelope Island. So we scurried away from our early am trip to KFC and ventured out to Antelope Island in hopes of finding Tyler's Bison (not buffalo).

 

After looking for about 30 minutes, we finally found a small herd loafing about a 1/4 mile away-too far for any good looks. We were then guided to a old campground road where one was grazing right next to the road. It was a big animal, and although there were many signs warning visitors not to get too close, I dared Tyler to hop out of the car and stand next to it so I could snap his photo! He wouldn't do it, and all we could imagine was the State Farm commercial when a large Bison rams the side of the car of the two guys in it. I can tell you if that happened, Tyler's Prius would have rolled into the Great Salt Lake with us in it! NOTE: Aunt Cathy, I tried to top the famous Yellowstone Park incident of 1981, but he wouldn't go for it! It was a very cool morning in the SLC area.

 

As we continued our trek west we had to make one last stop in Utah-at the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats. It was exactly as we've seen on TV. Miles and miles of nothing but flatness, extreme flatness. In fact, we drove across it for almost 50 miles and we barely saw 1/4 of the total area. Although I couldn't answer Tyler's interrogating questions (for nearly 20 miles) regarding why the road and salt flats reflect things around them (he wouldn't just accept my answer of heat waves), it was still an interesting discussion! I still love his never-ending curiosity! We entered the great state of Nevada and called it quits for tonight in Elko, NV, where we found it a bit difficult to find a hotel room due to their annual Cowboy Art & Poetry Show that's in town. Ask me about this another time! On to Reno tomorrow! Good Night to all!

 

 

 

Downtown Salt Lake City



 

                                       

Col. Sanders stands with someone? at his first KFC Franchise in Murray, UT.