(14) Salt Lake City, Great Salt Lake (Desert), Utah

From Glen Canyon on the southern border of Utah we took road 89 up north and then Highway 15, which leads straight to Salt Lake City. So, covering the distance of over 620 kilometers we drove through two thirds of Utah territory. The name of the state comes from the Ute Indian language and means, according to Wikipedia, "people of the mountains". (S):

Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah and, with the population of over 180 thousand, it is the most populous city. However, Salt Lake City belongs to a larger urban area, called the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which is inhabited by over a million people. The city was founded by Mormons in the 1840s. Earlier, the area had been inhabited by Native American tribes of Shoshone, Ute and Paiute. The picture below shows the main street in Salt Lake City, called State Street, which leads to the Utah Capitol State building, visible here on the right at the end. (S)

Below is the picture of the Utah State Capitol, which is a house of the state legislature and the governor's office. The building is impressive: 123 m long, 73 m wide and 87 m high, its name and architecture resembling the US Capitol in Washington DC. It is situated on Capitol Hill, which is a vantage point from which the panorama of Salt Lake City can be admired. (S)

The Pioneer Memorial Museum contains memorabilia from the time of the first settlers. (S)

Despite the fact that it is a state capital, Salt Lake City looks very quiet. Its residential districts are full of greenery, and the bustle of the city does not disturb its citizens (S):

The beautiful and quaint houses look as if they remembered the first settlers. (S):

Utah's capital is situated on the shore of Great Salt Lake, visible immediately after one leaves the city and takes route 80 westward. Great Salt Lake is a closed basin, which means that the water does not flow out of it to rivers or oceans; it is also the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere, with the average area of about 4.5 thousand square km. The lake is very shallow, so its size changes depending on the amount of snow and rain. (S)

Great Salt Lake lies in the area that is very dry - Great Salt Lake Desert. Unfriendly to prospective settlers, the area is very scantily populated, with only snakes and scorpions thriving here. (S):

Great Salt Lake can sometimes cover 8.5 thousand square km, so when the water evaporates, huge areas covered with salt invite car drivers to test their vehicles' performance, which was the main reason why we traveled to Great Salt Lake. (S)

Visible below is the Great Salt Lake that we wanted to visit - Bonneville salt flats (S):

However, our destination was located further west, close to Utah's border with Nevada, so we had to drive along the straight road cutting through the desert - one may feel desolate in this landscape. (S)

Every now and then, however, a lonely traveler can stop and contemplate works of art on the desert - quite surreal, I must say;):

An interesting phenomenon is caught in the picture below: the dry bottom of Great Salt Lake looks as if it was covered with water - it's just a mirage, but I could swear I did see the sheet of water. Another bright conclusion of mine: "the desert is unbelievably deceptive";)

Finally, we've reached our destination: Bonneville Speedway - the area on which land speed records are set and broken. Click on it to learn more (S):

We're not the only visitors to the place: there seem to be quite a few amateurs of speedy driving (S):

And here's our vehicle standing on the speedway (about 16 km long): On your marks! Get set! Go! (S)
However, I prefer admiring the salt sparkling in the afternoon sun. You could swear it's snow (S):

(12) Zion NP, Utah

From Las Vegas we traveled to Zion NP through Hurricane and Rockville - beautifully situated picturesque little towns, in which even the roads are red.
The most characteristic shape in Zion, which is practically a desert, is "mesa" - a Spanish word used for steep cliffs with a flat top like a table. Mesa is the most typical landform in the whole of the US Southwest.
Zion became a National Park in 1919, which means that it is the oldest park in Utah. The Park covers the area of about 600 km2. The picture below was taken in the town of Springdale, which is the south-western gateway to Zion:

Water plays the most important role in the creation of Zion's landscape, the major river being the Virgin, which has created steep cliffs and a canyon. It is along the River's North Fork that we took a scenic drive.

Apart from the shapes, the range of the red colors was for me the most spectacular feature of Zion's cliffs. I'm quoting from my diary: "a divine palette of reds";)

Situated in the western part of the Colorado Plateau, Zion NP is built of reddish Navajo Sandstone, which, being very soft, yields to the water flowing down the cliffs like clay to a sculptor's hands:

In Hebrew "Zion" means a "sanctuary" or a "place of refuge". The person who named the area Zion was a Mormon leader who found refuge from persecution in this place in 1863. He echoed the Bible as follows: "The Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." I find this a very accurate description;) (S)

A glimpse at a marvelous hill whose shape invites you to take a short walk (I did;) (S):

We are out of the 2-km-long Zion Mount Carmel Tunnel, where I could not take pictures for obvious reasons;) (S):

The view on the left is very typical of the Colorado Plateau and promises even more spectacular vistas - to come next in Glen Canyon and Antelope Canyon, Arizona.

(11) Las Vegas, Nevada,

From the wonders of Death Valley in California we traveled to the second state on our map - Nevada - to visit the most famous city of the region, which is Las Vegas. Since we avoided highways whenever it was possible, we drove east along the picturesque route 190 to Pathrump, and from there to Las Vegas down road 160. The word "picturesque" with reference to Nevada is actually a slight exaggeration, as the area there belongs to Mojave Desert. It is therefore flat (the only variety provided by the mountains on the horizon), and the land is barren. When you look at the map, you will notice that the border between California and Nevada is America's longest diagonal line (640km).

The picture of Las Vegas from a distance gives you an idea what a change from the diversified landscape of California Nevada was (S):

The name of the territory - Nevada - comes from "Sierra Nevada" and it was given to the region in 1861, which marked the separation of this territory from Utah. The separation of Nevada was the result of great animosity between the mainstream Christian population here and the Mormons of Utah. One might venture a conclusion that 1861 was a year in which separatist tendencies seemed to be sweeping across the whole of the US and the animosities culminated in the outbreak of the Civil War.
Las Vegas may be the biggest and most famous city in Nevada but it is not the state's capital. It might be surprising for a European traveler to realize that in America the biggest cities - and at the same time the most obvious candidates - are not always state capitals. What's more, even second-biggest cities (like Reno in Nevada) would be wrong guesses in the case of some states. Struck by this fact - known to me from geography lessons at school but somehow forgotten - I resorted to Wikipedia to verify my intuition with respect to capitals of the states which were on the map of my American tour;). Here are the results:
California - Sacramento (I knew it, though the choice would be LA or San Francisco); Nevada - Carson City with the population of just over 55 thousand (my mind went blank); Utah - Salt Lake City (that's logical); Idaho - Boise (logical again, though I didn't remember hearing the name before); Wyoming - Cheyenne (logical); Colorado - Denver (that I'd known since "Dynasty";), "Dynasty" also taught me that the capital of Arizona is Phoenix; New Mexico - Santa Fe (I remembered seeing a very romantic video clip to the song by John Bon Jovi titled "Santa Fe", but the logical choice would be Albuquerque). This geography lesson taught me one thing: it must be unbelievably difficult for American kids to score an A in geography.
Anyway, continuing my trip to Las Vegas: below is a picture taken at about 8 p.m. from our hotel. The city is preparing itself for the night (S):

"Las Vegas" means "The Meadows" in Spanish. Considering the geography of the area, one must admit that the name very well reflects the character of the place. When I traveled through Nevada, I got an impression that it was a very poor state: agriculture has not flourished because the soil is poor and investors somehow have not swarmed in to venture huge industrial enterprises here. Gambling has always been the state's major economy and the only solution to the disastrous decline in the 1920s, when state authorities decided to re-legalize gambling. This has resulted in the growth of Las Vegas (almost 2 m people live in its area) and it becoming the Entertainment Capital of the World. Visible below are lights of the planes bringing guests who will spend the night on gambling, drinking and having fun, whatever this might mean (S):

Nighttime is the best time for visiting Las Vegas, but it's the worst time for taking pictures if one doesn't have professional equipment. If one does have it though, it's a bit dangerous and cumbersome to walk around with a huge camera hanging from your neck like the albatross from the Ancient Mariner's;), especially if one wants to have some fun. As a result, I took only a few good quality pictures with my little camera. I don't regret it though, since I totally focused on watching, absorbing and experiencing the phantasmagorical reality of Sin City. Captured below is one of the first views of the city after I got out of the car:

Las Vegas is practically one street called Las Vegas Strip, which runs through downtown Las Vegas for about 6.5 kilometers. It is there that all the hotels and casinos are located. Las Vegas lives at night - dozens of thousands of people flow along and across the Strip. The visitors are dazed by all the music and lights - midnight seems to be the city's rush hour:

To enter or not to enter? I will, but not here - I will eventually have a drink in the Luxor Casino. For the time being, I'm choosing a crazy ride on the roller coaster, which is located on the New York New York Hotel and offers incredible experiences: the stunning panorama of the city by night, stomach twisting and dizzying free falls and hair-raising jet barrel-roll simulations. If you ever get to Las Vegas, don't miss it;)

American hotels are probably a subject for a separate blog. For about $100 you get a spacious room with standard equipment, plus ice is always available from an ice machine; but, most importantly, in the bathroom one always finds a hair dryer and an iron with an ironing board. Below is a picture of the hotel in which we stayed during our Las Vegas trip: clean, comfortable, not too expensive - Holiday Inn Express hotels are definitely my favorite, especially because the rooms always smell nice (my obsession).

The picture below was taken after we left Las Vegas and traveled north-east:

Ahead visible is the landscape characteristic of Utah, a state which borders with Nevada and which has a population of over 2.5 m living in the area equivalent to 2/3 of Poland's territory.

Utah's geography is extraordinary since three geological regions meet there: the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin and the most beautiful Colorado Plateau. The colors visible in the picture below are for me the colors of the Plateau - different shades of red;). It is a promise of an adventure:

Utah may not be a very populated state but if I ever had a choice, I would certainly choose to live in Utah. The state prides itself on all the most famous national parks of the American West: Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, Messa Verde, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, which is our next destination, already looming in the distance: