I've managed to travel to Utah twice in the last 19 months and have only been to Northern Utah. It's such a beautiful place that I'm not complaining one bit! After a crazy 36 hours of travel, we changed our Utah plans up a bit to allow for more relaxing. Thank goodness we made that call before getting into our Airbnb because the house we stayed at was so incredibly relaxing, we probably could have stayed the entire weekend at the house!
We got in late on a Friday night with a greeting from the neighborhood mountains that loomed in the backyard as we explored the house. Our beds were so comfortable that we slept in Saturday morning, lounged around the Airbnb, with the minis playing in the zen backyard. Later in the day, we grabbed In & Out for lunch, then traipsed around Great Salt Lake State Park.
The tranquil Airbnb was exactly what we needed. The minis relaxed in the back den, we sipped coffee in the living room (yes, all minis drank coffee), and the backyard was a haven for us all.
This was the minis first time having In & Out and it was met with rave reviews!
Funny story about this amusement park. The last time Hubs and I drove through, I made the comment that the minis would love this amusement park. I kind of forgot about that until we drove passed on the interestate and the middle mini got super excited about it. It's now on their "Utah List" for what we're going to do on our RV adventure through Utah. It should be noted that there is no official date for this trip, so they could be waiting awhile!
Seeing the Great Salt Lake was bittersweet. It's very beautiful and oh so unique, but to see it shrinking is devestating. Knowing something is happening and to see it firsthand is always a slap in the face, no matter what it is. I don't keep my head in the sand, so I've seen all of the reports about how the Great Salt Lake is rapidly shrinking. However, I was able to compare it to when I last saw it 19 months ago and could visibly make out how much more it had shrank. I'm grateful I made the drive with the minis, so they could see it too. Not just to see a natural wonder and the beauty that surrounds it, but traveling has made my children aware of the issues in the world. Climate change and droughts being some of them.
Amazingly, the water wasn't too far away from the beach area. The water was also extremely warm for walking in. The beach area was mostly mud (because that's where the lake would be) and had soft layers of salt all over. While fun, it was a quick visit. We were also able to check out the Saltair, which was right next to the state park.
I'm so disappointed I missed the dog's face after he took a huge lick of the Great Salt Lake!! He wanted away from the lake as soon as he got a taste of it!
It took us a few tries to get selfies.
The oldest was selfie-ing and the dog peed in the water. I can now say my dog has peed in the ocean and every other lake, river, or stream we've come across.
We were ready for more exploring after the Lake, so we decided to explore Ogden a bit. Ogden is just north of SLC, near the mountains, and is the perfect base for northern Utah. We did part of the canyon trail and part of the river trail. While the temps were nice and cool, that Utah sun is no joke. We were sweating by the time we climbed down the mountain.
Sunday's adventure took us to Bonneville Salt Flats. We didn't drive out because I was really worried about the weighed down car getting stuck in the mud on the side, but we did walk all around the salt flats. The ground at the Salt Flats is as hard as concrete and as white as snow. The drive into the Flats reminded me a lot of our drive into White Sand Dunes National Park.
And with that, our Utah portion of our adventure was complete. We had an easy drive into Twin Falls, ID via Nevada (Bonneville Speedway is near the Utah-Nevada border). I informed the minis they were not allowed to check Nevada off their list of state visited since we only drove through the Great Basin area. Meanwhile, our Utah list for our future RV trip keeps getting longer and longer.
