We have a whole day to explore Salt Lake City before our vacation is over!
Andreas suggests to drive out to the Great Salt Lake Desert. Soon after breakfast we head west on HWY80 towards the sun and blue skies and away from the clouds hanging over the city. We take exit 41 about half way to Wendover to walk around the sand dunes and a short off road tour. We stop along the Highway to explore the salt flats – it looks like salt and it tastes like salt – it is salt! Then we continue and soon realize that we have to go all the way to Wendover because there is no HWY exit anymore. The next exit is Bonneville Speedway (this is where a lot of speed records have been achieved – in 1970, Gary Gabolich’s rocket car, “Blue Flame”, attained a spectacular 622.4 miles per hour – and a lot of cars have been tested). This is the place Andreas secretly hoped to see anyway! We drive all the way to the end of the road, then Andreas gets the chance to test the 4Runner on the International Race Track! The result is a big smile on his face and a car full of salt!
For us it’s time for a coffee, so the next stop is McDonalds at Wendover. Before heading back to Salt Lake we find a car wash to get rid of the salt crust.
It’s a long 120 mile drive back and we take a few short breaks, the last one at State Marina. The water of the Salt Lake has an average salinity of 15%, regular ocean water has only 3.5% salinity.
In the afternoon we visit Temple Square. This is the headquarters of the Mormon, basically their Vatican, a huge temple, the office building from the outside and visitor centers plus some other buildings all very nice and well maintained.
