A Warm Welcome at Welcome Station RV Park near Wells, Nevada

We drove from Ogden to just west of Wells, Nevada on Monday, where we received a wonderful welcome from owner Steve and temporary receptionist, Jan. Our friends Steve and Nancy purchased this property last year; Nancy is with their daughter who had her baby a week ago; their (and our) friends Jan and Smitty are here helping in Nancy's absence.

Before leaving the Ogden/Salt Lake City area we wanted to fill up with diesel. I had checked GasBuddy, and almost all of the stations had gone up in price since we arrived in Ogden (bummer! should have filled up when we arrived!) - but one was still at $3.199/gallon and it was reasonably easy to get to and to get in-and-out of. We put in a little over 130 gallons!

I had wanted to get a picture of the Great Salt Lake while we were in the area, but had not found a place where we could see it. On our way west, we stopped at a view point off of I-80 at the southern end of the lake.

Finally! I got to see the Great Salt Lake!

Pictures of almost 360 degrees - 1 of 6

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When we were at the view point, we could see large white irregular looking things further west - they almost looked like icebergs in the lake, but we figured that was most unlikely! Turns out it was a Morton Salt facility (https://www.mortonsalt.com/business-product/puresun-culinary-crystals/).

I-80 heads off west almost completely straight

In the salt flats, there are a number of "art" pieces - some more art than others. This is "Metaphor: The Tree of Utah" (https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2230).

What is that? Is it a sea monster in the salt flat?

Of course it is! Made out of tires!

Eventually, just a few miles east of the Nevada border, we came to the Salt Flats Rest Area on I-80.

It was easy to walk out onto the salt flats in this area.

Lots of people were walking out there.

So we joined them!

Beautiful, but other-worldly!

It looks almost like I'm standing on a frozen lake...

Dwayne on the salt flat...

A picture of the surface.

I had used GasBuddy and knew that fuel prices in Nevada and California (our next two states) were going to be a lot higher than Utah, so we topped off Miss Doozie at the exit for the Bonneville Salt Flats. While regular gas is priced at $3.699, diesel is $3.259! In my opinion, that is as it should be (since, as I understand it, both are derived from the same raw material and diesel requires less production work than gasoline).

Then we detached the Jeep and drove out to where the speedway is located.

Ignore the graffiti - we were down near the bottom middle of this map - I-80 and the Western Pacific Railroad tracks were further south of us, and the speedway was a little ways into the salt flat and heading off 10 miles away.

 I had done some reading on the web before we got there (http://things2doinutah.com/bonneville-salt-flats/):

That line on the horizon that is slightly higher than the horizon is a train.

The driving area into the salt flats

There were a number of vehicles out there (black specks), but we elected not to drive the bus (which we had left at the truck stop) or the Jeep out onto the flats - we didn't need any extra corrosion on the vehicles!

Continuing west, about to enter Nevada. There were road warnings about high winds - you can see the windsock in the median. The winds weren't bad here, but almost as soon as we got into Nevada, we had quite prevalent cross winds.

Beautiful country...

The road looks like it goes on forever..

We crossed 3 (I think) mountain passes from entering Nevada to Wells.

There were a few of these kinds of overpasses - they did not seem to carry a road over the interstate...

Here one is being built... I am not certain what they are for... I'll need to do some more research.

Fuel prices in Nevada - similar to what we saw in the Ogden area for regular ($3.159) but significantly higher for diesel ($3.699).

Near Welcome Station - I think this is Hole in the Mountain Peak

We're almost there!

There it is!!!

Miss Doozie settled in...

Just north of the park is pasture land where there are horses.

Just south is I-80 and (what I think is) Hole in the Mountain Peak.

 We are looking forward to visiting with friends (Jan made us supper for our arrival day - 8-can soup and salad and rolls - YUM!) and there are planned festivities for the 4th. Nancy will be returning on Thursday. So nice to be with friends!