Today is the 5th day of our moving road trip. We are finally entering Nevada. We could probably drive all the way to our new place (would be about 7 hrs +), but since we had a long drive in the past 2 days, we decided to split the trip into 2 days. So our first stop is a town called Elko, NV.
You can go back to our trip from Nebraska to Wyoming is here:
https://doggieandmyuslife.com/road-trip-nebraska-to-wyoming/
Trip from Wyoming to Utah is here:
https://doggieandmyuslife.com/road-trip-wyoming-to-utah/
Overall distance is 230 miles and the driving hour is only 3 hours and 20 min. It’s gonna be relatively an easy trip. We had a relaxing and slow morning. We slept in longer and had a late breakfast.
At 11am, we finally checked out our hotel. Our only stop to the hotel is a town called West Wendover, NV. It’s located right near the Nevada Utah border. It’s only an hour and 35 min drive from Salt Lake City.
After leaving Salt Lake City, it was hard not to spot smog coming out at many locations. Getting closer to the smog, we noticed those are from smelters. What I learned later on was the history of mining and smelting in this area. There is one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world, Bingham Canyon Mine aka Kennecott Copper Mine. It seems like there is a tour, but if you go there as an individual, they recommend to buy a ticket prior the visit.
| Address: | 12732 Bacchus Hwy. Herriman, UT 84096 |
| Website: | https://riotintokennecott.com/visit/ |
On the right side of the road is the Great Salt Lake. The lake is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere, according to Wikipedia. When the water evaporates, it leaves salt behind.
We should have studied that kind of geography prior the trip. While the Nevada border is getting closer, we found Bonneville Salt Flats on the right. We’ve never knew. We thought in the beginning, it was snow.
It almost reminds me of Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia!
Of course we realized it was salt at some point, but my focus was more on to this mirage!!!
I know you can see this phenomenon in desert, but it wasn’t really hot that day at all. It was regular winter temperature. I wonder what caused it.
Anyways, after passing the beautiful Bonneville Salt Flats, we finally entered a state of Nevada!
As planned, we stopped at West Wendover. Oh and you can tell you are in Nevada right after you cross the border. You will see many many casino signs.
After a short stop, we left the town. To the final destination Elko is only an hour and a half.
On the way, we found an interesting sign. Deeth Starr Valley LOL I can say probably many people imagine Star Wars, Death Star, like I did. So, I googled it and I didn’t find the town, but instead, there is a town called Deeth, which is a ghost town now, and a Starr Valley. I’m guessing the sign means “Deeth & Starr Valley” not in one word.
At 1:30pm, we arrived in Elko, a town established in 1868.
What an old town. Again, I wished I learned a history before the visit. Now I can open a guidebook to find interesting spots, but I had no clue about this area at that time… We have to come back again in the future.
We didn’t want to head to the hotel right away, so we randomly picked a stop: Hot Spring!!!
So here we are. Although, we couldn’t enter inside, we could see steam coming out from the ground.
As for dinner, we selected a restaurant called The Star Hotel, opened back in 1910, to enjoy our first Basque food. I’ve never heard of the word, “Basque”, but it seems like there were many immigrants from those area.
Just 2 of us and we got so much food, don’t you think? LOL Well, it’s not because we ordered them but a soup, salad, French bread, Basque beans, pasta, French fries and vegetables were included in the dish. Sounds like this is the Basque style dinner.
| Address: | 246 Silver St. Elko, Nevada |
| Website: | https://www.elkostarhotel.com/ |
That’s the end of the day! Next is the last trip 🙂