Took off for Midway, Utah last Saturday at zero dark thirty. Which is the best time to take off for anywhere. Went the back way through Olympia, down I5 almost to Portland, hung a left on I84 to the Weber Canyon in Ogden, then the back way to Midway.
I cannot tell you how beautiful it is to get out from under all these damned trees and see open countryside and open skies! Wow! There’s a piece of the road (I84) East of Pendleton, Or (and just east of the Wild Horse Casino) where you almost switch-back but do rise 1500-2000 feet (I’m guessing) and we went from 45 degrees to 34 degrees and snow in less than 15 minutes. Cool! Then snow covered hills, and even some active snow, through Oregon over to Ontario.
Stayed with friends and planned our trip to the Grand Canyon and just relaxed. It was warmer in Midway during the day than anywhere along our trip.
Coming back we decided to take a route we haven’t been for years, I80 to Winnemucca, Nevada, then a road we’ve never been on, US-95N. Let me tell you something about US-95N: Between Winnemucca and Marsing, Idaho, (221 miles and about 4 hours) that highway is some of the most “back road where the fuck are we” desolation you can drive in today’s America. Takes your through Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho and more East then I would have preferred. Miles and Miles of straight road to a rise, which you top, then miles and miles of straight road until the next rise.
If it hadn’t been 1400 hours or so I’d have spent the night in McDermitt, Nv, but, we pressed onward and spent the night in a cheap hotel in Ontario, Or. Got up early and made our way back along our usual route and got home about 1500. At that piece of road just East of the Wild Horse Casino, where you drop 1500-2000 feet (guessing) we went from 27 degrees to 47 degrees in less than 15 minutes. Nice.
I love the wide open West! (Pics of the trip, if yer interested.) All that geology! All that openness. All that sky!
Glad to be home though.The only bad part of the whole trip was that damned ladder rack on my truck. LOUD! The roar coming off that thing at anything over 70 mph made conversation difficult. Oppressive! It’ll be coming off for any future trips; that’s for sure.