Day 11: Travel to West Yellowstone

On our 9 hour trip from Moab to West Yellowstone, we traveled through Utah and the Great Salt Lake, Idaho, and finally into Montana. The route took us back some of the way that we came in, I-70 but then to US-191 north-west through the mountains.

The first part of the trip was through the high desert of the Colorado plateau, but once we reached the Salt Lake city area, things started looking greener. And of course we had to stop at the Great Salt Lake.

On the way in to the Antelope Island, we took some pictures to the north and south of the long causeway that connects it to the mainland. The smooth water made for some really interesting pictures.

A quick refresher about Salt Lake: incredibly salty, the only life in the lake are brine shrimp, at the margins are incredible clouds of gnats, and on the surface are sea gulls. That's it unless you count the waders. And the smell. Depending on the breeze and how far the water has receded from the shore, it smells like ... well salty dead and decaying things.

The brine shrimp are tiny little red critters also called 'Sea Monkeys'. And none of them were wearing crowns, despite the adverts. Becky had been there 9 years ago at the age of 6. Corey was 2 and doesn't remember a thing. All Becky remembers of the previous trip was that she thought the brine shrimp were biting her. In actuality, it was the salt making all the small cuts and abrasions sting.

What the parents remember was that it was dusk when we left the island last time, and we paid the price. Normally all those billions of gnats fly close to the ground probably because of the steady breezes. And they are apparently good at one thing, concentrating the 'salty dead and decaying things' smell. At dusk, the breezes die and all those gnats create great clouds of evil smelling bugs that coat your windows and exhaust system with bug guts. Guess what, it doesn't smell any better cooked on the hot exhaust system!

The water in the Salt Lake as receded a long way from the shore line, and we had quite a trek getting to it. The kids and Dad braved the shallow warm water, and the kids brought back a specimen of the salt shrimp. The bugs are everywhere, but luckily they stay within the first 3 inches of the ground.

North of Salt Lake, the terrain looks more like Wisconsin with mountains. And we start seeing rivers and ponds. What a difference it makes. Once we hit Idaho Falls we took US 20, the last turn for another hundred miles or so. For a lot of this leg of the trip, we travel along the Snake river. The area is far more lush, a veritable jungle compared to what we've been used to seeing lately.

As we neared our destination, we could see the Grand Tetons in the distance.

Tomorrow, Yellowstone!