Tuesday, August 22

Some days, like today, turn out to be much better than you expect.

I knew that, after 40 days of travel on a deadline, I wanted to spend some time in Salt Lake City relaxing, sleeping and planning the next part of the trip . After the eclipse on Monday I had thought of driving directly to Salt Lake but decided to stay in Montpelier, ID because there is a scenic byway that connects it to Salt Lake that I had never driven. The route follows the western shore of Bear Lake and I assumed that would be the scenic highlight and I would take some time getting great photos there before hitting I15 again for the final run to Salt Lake.

Bear Lake proved to be disappointing. I tried finding good viewpoints but there were few access points and, quite frankly, it was not that photogenic. As I drove away from the lake I came to the Bear Lake overlook and rest area and stopped for a final photo and to go online see if I could find something en route to fill some time. Nothing grabbed my interest and I was still exhausted so I took my first ever true rest in a rest area.

After a good nap I continued on my way to discover that the next part of the drive was through a spectacular , narrow canyon and was the real scenic highlight of the route. Unfortunately, there were no places to stop for photographs so, to see it, you will need to watch the road video. That, and the route map, can be found here.

My next surprise was when I arrived at my hotel in central Salt Lake. I had paid just$119 a night (including taxes, parking and Internet) for a four star hotel that is five blocks from the Mormon Temple and Tabernacle so I was pretty pleased. When I saw the room I was ecstatic and I could be here a while 🙂

Bear Lake as seen from the overlook.
My bargain hotel room is a beautiful suite on the 8th floor with luxury everything and a view of the city.

Wednesday, August 23

Enjoying a relaxing day of sleeping late, watching TV and planning.