Great American Road Trip Part 5- Arches, Salt, and Mormons

aaronburt (57)in #travel • 7 years ago

I felt my legs get weak and I began to fall forward. "Crunch"- my hands hit the gravel on the trail. I was not doing well. After stumbling a little further toward camp while mumbling about my bloodied hands I don't remember much. The next thing I know, I was waking up in my hammock back at the base camp. I spent the next hour or so drinking hot chocolate and gatorade and wishing I was back home in Jersey at 800' feet above sea level. Unfortunately I was still at almost 10,000' and my body could feel it. We were on a tight schedule however so we quickly broke camp, packed the car, and got ready to go. Well at least some of us did. I basically stumbled around the car in a tremendous amount of pain, head throbbing, unable to think straight.

After we got in the car we had a long drive ahead of us. We had to get to Utah and just getting back to the highway was going to be a treacherous drive. My 2010 Honda Pilot rumbled down the dirt road kicking up tons of dust behind it. Teo drove and I sat in the passenger seat where it felt like a kitchen knife was going through my brain every time we hit a bump. When we got to a section of road that had water rushing across it, we were unsure of how safe it would be to cross, but we pushed on anyways. We were on a tight schedule. Finally we made it to smooth pavement. Over the next two hours we dropped about 6,000' in elevation and I physically felt the effects of the elevation. My ears popped and my headache faded a little. Upon getting away from the mountains, we stopped for a quick snack at Wendy's and continued to push West.

One of the craziest things about Route 70 in Colorado was the means by which it went through the mountains. Literally THROUGH the mountains. The tunnels were crazy. Being from New Jersey, the only thing I could compare them to would be the Lincoln tunnel. I had no idea that some of these existed. We went through rock lined tunnels, tiled tunnels, tunnels that dripped water, and some that looked as if they could collapse at any minute. Through all of these, in traditional fashion, we held our breaths. At one point, the driver almost passed out from holding his breath through a tunnel almost a mile long.

Before too long we were back in a desert environment with sandy red soil- a good sign as we hoped to make it to Moab by sundown. After crossing into Utah we enjoyed the increase in the speed limit to 80mph.

When we finally got to Moab it was around 7pm. There was a dusty haze in the air and it was about 95 degrees. Just that morning it had been 32 and snowy and now it was in the 90s. It had been a crazy day and we were tired so while two of my friends set up camp at the Moab KOA, I drove to the store with my other friend to buy stuff for dinner. We ended up leaving with hotdogs and rolls, ketchup, mustard, pickles and potato chips as well as marshmallows and kool aid mix. Dinner was nice and after playing some cards, taking showers and realizing that our neighbors at the campsite on either side were Amish families, we went to sleep.

When we woke up in the morning we broke camp, jumped in the pool, and drove to Arches National Park. When we got to the park entrance, I bought a $80 national parks pass. This was the best investment I made on my entire trip as it lets a carload of people into any of the national parks any day for a year. I ended up using it again many times.

Once inside the park we drove around the dirt roads trying to see as many arches as we could. The main goal of the day however was to hike to Delicate Arch. This is the famous arch thats featured on postcards, stamps, magazine covers, and even the Utah license plate. The hike out to the arch was strenuous to say the least and we were advised again and again by park rangers to have at least a liter of water per person per hour. By the time we got to the Delicate arch, we all knew why. The hike was completely worth it though. Being in Arches National Park is like being on another planet. The rock formations are unreal and the landscape is extremely inviting to the imagination.

When we got back to the car, we realized that Kyle had a minor sunburn.

When we were finally sick of looking at rocks for the day, we decided we would drive further West. It was only 2 in the afternoon and we had experienced what Utah had to offer. We bought some aloe for our sunburns and packed into the car for another arduous journey across more desert. We weren't sure where we would stop for the night and just decided to drive until we could drive no more.

Our long term goal had changed however and we decided that if we made it this far west, we had to reach the Pacific Ocean. We took a vote on San Francisco or Los Angeles and the majority chose San Francisco. Because this was to the north, we cut up through Salt Lake City to route 80. Along the way we stopped in a town with a Del Taco restaurant, a western take on Taco Bell and thoroughly enjoyed the food despite the 30 minute wait. The mormon employees of the establishment could tell that we were from out of town and asked us a ton of questions about our trip. I guess they weren't used to three guys from New Jersey and one from Norway driving through their state in a Taupe Honda Pilot on the way to California.

After another half hour or so we came upon vast Salt flats. The salt flats turned out to be a highlight of the trip and they werent even on our itinerary. Until we saw them, we didn't even know they existed.

Oh, and we found out where Morton Salt comes from...

As night fell, we drove past the Casino lights of Nevada toward Reno where we found ourselves in the parking lot of an Indian Food restaurant at 2 in the morning...