The Salt Flats of Utah

June 12 Day 11 117 miles

This was our longest day yet, and it was long indeed. It is more than I have ridden in one day before. We had breakfast at 5:30 in the coffee shop next to a forest of slot machines.

This allowed us to get an early start, straight into the morning sun, magnified by the stark salt flats. We followed I-80 east on a roadway elevated slightly above the dead flat surface. This stretched straight ahead, as far as we could see, with a distant mountain range rising above it, 60 miles away. We spent the morning cycling to reach the mountains, and were only half way to our destination when we got there. There was a modest head wind all day. One SAG stop was at 45 miles, and a second at 90 miles, where we had stashed sandwich material. The road traffic became a lot worse as we neared Salt Lake City, until we were delivered onto a quiet frontage road, taking us all the way to our hotel.

Thankfully, tomorrow is a rest day.

We crossed the town line into Utah, while still in Wendover

So these are the great salt flats and this is what they looked like all morning.

And they looked like this from our many vantage points, for hours.

We have been seeing signs for Salt lake for 100's of mile, so to pass the 100 mark was a milestone.

The surface of the flats started to change as we neared Salt Lake

The second SAG stop is at 90 miles. Do we look hungry?

We were relieved to make it to our hotel, where we will rest for a day.

Tomorrow is a day off!