Salt Lake City
The time had finally come. We packed up our little home, and set off on our adventure, but not before saying bye to some friends. Pictured below, are Matt (left) and Mark (right) in the midst of a heated debate on the ergonomics of circular saws. Was my circular saw for lefty’s? Does a lefty saw even exist? I sure as heck don’t know, and I don’t think these two ever figured it out either.
Either way, big shoutout to these guys for helping me get the Jeep built and ready for this trip.
Bonneville Salt Flats
Our first stop as we embarked west was the famous Salt Flats. Known for the “speedway” where various land speed records have been set. It’s also known for, get this, being a massive flat bed of salt!
The Jeep wasn’t about to set any records, but it sure was going to get a nice salt bath.
I’ll note as an aside that all of the pictures on this trip are a reflection of me learning to take real
photos with a real camera (thanks to Matt for loaning me some gear).
We pulled into the parking lot and I managed to rip the the face right off one of my drawers. Nice! Awesome start! I guess that’s our first trail repair…
Nevada
After the Salt Flats, we drove as far across Nevada as we could until we reached Winnemucca. We found some BLM land (Beaurou of Land Managment) on the map and headed there.
What I have yet to mention about Nevada is a recent infestation of “Mormon Crickets”. Read that article at your own risk, it’s gross.
Bottom line there are cannibalistic cricket looking cockroach things lining the roads across parts of NV, CA, ID, and UT. There was no avoiding them.
So we found a camp site, there were crickets around, we dealt with it (I only pranced around and squealed out of fear like 4 times). We woke up the next morning and got out of there.
“Mormon Crickets” line the road in Winnemucca, NV
Tahoe
On our way out of Nevada and AWAY from the crickets, we had to stop in Lake Tahoe. Unfortunately it’s the 4th of July and it’s a madhouse. We couldn’t even get onto any of the beaches without paying $40. Luckily it had only been a day since we’d showered at this point, so we could pass like we maybe had a reason to be at this marina. We managed to snap this picture before before any marina staff kicked us out (or smelled us).
Stanislaus National Forest
From Tahoe we set our sights on somewhere outside of Yosemite to camp. We chose the more scenic route to get there, taking us through a beautiful, winding, and sometimes perilous road through Stanislaus National Forest. It was here we stumbled upon some of the most beautiful sights of the trip so far.
We were finally in California! Yosemite here we come (actually this time).