Great Salt Lake Sprawl

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We head east into Idaho with Boise as our only stop, other than for gas. We avoid getting gas in Oregon because you can’t pump your own gas there. It’s state law. Never understood it. It’s annoying. I’ve never been to Boise before so I just wanted to see what it was like in a drive-by sorta way to scope out the general feel of it and to look for decent espresso. We’re in downtown and I see a Starbucks but vowed to not go to one on this trip. I put on my independent coffeehouse radar and within minutes I find one—Dawson’s Downtown on 8th and Bannock. It’s got a liberal alternative vibe, good espresso, and truly free wi-fi. Howard Schultz could learn a few things. We head back on I-84 and haul ass across Idaho. I-84 is mostly a two-lane highway each direction. I’m going 90 in the slow lane. During a stretch of straight road for a few seconds, I test the MINI at 100 mph just to see what it would feel like. It felt like 90 mph. It’s incredibly easy to go fast in the MINI and not feel it. My beloved MINI is a red blur on the highway. It’s the Red Menace as my friend Jonah calls it.

We drive south into Utah and I’m shocked by the sprawl of Salt Lake City and its surrounding communities. The setting is spectacular, with the Great Salt Lake to the west and the impressive Wasatch Mountains to the east. SLC still has some outstanding late nineteenth century and early twentieth century architecture but much of it is obscured by the bad postmodern (PoMo) architecture constructed in the 1980s, 1990s and probably in more recent years too. Temple Square is the focus of the city—the whole place was planned around it. The streets in SLC are really wide because back in the day when Brigham Young planned the city, the streets had to accommodate teams of oxen to turn around in. I guess nowadays the super wide streets allow more room for all the big-ass SUVs and gigantic pick-up trucks. The street system is supposed to be easy to figure out but the names are bizarre—instead of S. First St. they say 100 S or 300 N for N. First St. In fact, the entire state is like that.

We spot the first other MINI of the trip near the Capitol Building in SLC.

We keep driving south and east to Green River which is one of the gateway towns before Arches National Park. We leave SLC at 8:30 pm and drive past Orem and Provo and more sprawl. We’re glad we’re doing this drive at night so we don’t have to see it. We come to a gradual ascent and the lights of the metropolitan area give way to darkness. I can’t see what’s out there at all and at some point Cathy looks through the windshield and says, “I think that’s a mountain. It’s a BIG f*cking mountain!” So for the next 2.5 hours I drive through a twisty mountain road (SR 6) and have only an inkling that we’re probably driving through some beautiful scenery. At one point, a freight train’s lights illuminate the side of some cliffs and we see briefly how amazing and spooky it is at night. We arrive in Green River at 11:30 pm. I just did the one thing my dad warned me not to do—drive on a winding mountain road late at night. Dad—if you’re reading this, I’m ok! I always get a big adrenaline rush driving on mountain roads. And it’s double the fun in the MINI.

I drove for 9.5 hours and covered 670 miles in Day 2. C’s turn to drive the next day.

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Photos

Cool Cement Plant
Northeast Oregon off I-84

Utah State Capitol Building
Salt Lake City. The building is perched above the the city.

Great neon sign!
Salt Lake City

LDS Mecca
The temple at Temple Square.

Terra cotta face detail
Salt Lake City - some building

Comments

[Vicky,]

road-trip
Now I know where I can make U-turns in my big-ass Suburban! Thanks for the travel tip.

[Loree]

you are so wrong!
There is nothing better than having someone else pump your gas on a cold rainy night, it is fabulous!

[Debbi]

and our gas is the same price as WA
AND some poor 8th grade graduate has a job....I have never understood why someone wants to pump their own gas.......the smell, maybe?