Journey to California, Part 2

Day Six

Here we drove from Denver to Salt Lake City, Utah. This drive is both really interesting and REALLY boring. The drive starts in Denver, goes up through the Rockies, and ends in a desert. The mountain pass through the Rockies takes you up to 10,000 feet and through many cute little ski resort towns. The west side of the pass parallels a gorgeous river and it's canyon. GORGEOUS. Probably the prettiest section of our whole trip.

I have decided to adopt Colorado as my second state of residence. Matt and I could definitely settle down near Denver, that's for sure.

The second part of that trip, though, takes you through the the San Raphael desert in southern Utah. I would rather drive through Kansas, honestly. There are some interesting red cliffs to look at, but other than that, it's flat and full of dirt and sand. No green anywhere. I could never, ever live out there. That is the absolute perfect place for a high security prison, though. There is literally nothing out there, and if a prisoner escapes, well, he'll die of dehydration.

Anyways.

We did take a detour down to Arches National Park, the saving grace of southern Utah. It's gorgeous! And if you have a dog like we did, no worries, you can see most everything from your car, so all you have to do is drive around, look at the pretty scenery, and take lots of pictures.

Day Seven

This day was SUPPOSED to commence a drive from SLC to the happening (ehem) town of Elko, NV. But because of a rather bad habit of checking Facebook way too often, I discovered a friend was traveling from Reno to Sacramento (same road we would be on the following day), and the pass was closed due to a blizzard. In Nevada. Of all places. So for once, I was actually happy for my Facebook addiction because we did an immediate change of plans and had to leave the hotel pronto to start our new route: SLC to Las Vegas, then Las Vegas to Sacramento. Combined this detour would add 300 miles to our trip (including a 100 mile back track), but that was better than getting to the pass and not knowing if it would be closed, and what restrictions there would be if it was open.

So cheers for Facebook?

SLC to Las Vegas is not the most interesting of drives, but once the trees start it actually gets pretty. Not to mention, every town on the side of the highway in Nevada has some sort of exotic looking resort to attract those people who want to experience Vegas, but are retired.

Day Eight: The Home Stretch

Let me just say, I'm happy to be "home," but mad did I hate that drive from Vegas to Sacramento. The Nevada desert is not interesting. Plus, it was a ten hour job. That's hard on anybody, but when you're worried about the toll this long day (not to mention week) is having on your animals, it just drags on and seems worse than it is. God bless them, my fur babies are the best of travelers, but even I can't expect my cat to like being in a carrier all day for 8 days, or a very active year old Golden to be fine with just chillin' in the back of the Jeep.

But we made it! We're super excited to finally be done living on the road! Keep checking back, I will be updating in the next few days about our experience here, and a lot of people want pictures of the house.