Saturday, July 24, 2021 - WOW!!! We Had No Idea What Highway 30 Would Be Like....But, It Did Not Disappoint!

Saturday, July 24, 2021 - WOW!!!  We Had No Idea What Highway 30 Would Be Like...But, It Did Not Disappoint!

When we arrived at Red Desert Rose CG yesterday I'm don't think it was even close to half it's capacity.  By 9:30 the park was getting close to being full.  We went to bed about 10.  I was just drifting into lala land after having laid in bed for awhile, when someone starts yelling and laughing not far from our rig.  Who does that at 10:30 pm?  Their voices were raised enough I could hear what they were saying.  To drown them out, I got up and turned on the air conditioner fan on so it would run all night.  I did finally go back to sleep, but it wasn't a good one.  I was up at 4:15 with my neck hurting.  Once I get up it usually quits within 15-20 minutes.  I think I just lay wrong or something because it is not an every day occurrence - but I wish it wasn't an occurrence at all.  LOL!

I waited until I heard Dean stirring before turning on the coffeepot, around 5:30.  We do love that first cup of coffee in the morning.

We knew we had a long drive this morning so we were ready to pull out at 8:47am.  I was surprised how many rigs had already left before us.

I'm giving you fair warning, I've included many pictures.  It's hard to decide what to keep and what to toss.  I tossed A LOT!   

At 5:12am it was 62.8 here in Rawlins, WY.  We love these morning temperatures!

We had just passed the Continental Divide at 7,000 feet.  Notice the haze in the foreground - from the forest fires further west.

 

I'm so thankful that states place rest stops along the way.  They provide such a great service to travelers.  I love to see our country's flag flying, alongside Wyoming's flag.

I'm not sure what type of rock/material this was, but possibly a quarry of some kind.

First of many rock formations we'll see today.

We were on a two lane road for many miles.  It looked as if the closed lane was getting a new road bed.

The scenery is slowly getting better.

Same rock in the two above pictures - the first one, as we passed in front of it, the second from the side.

I love tunnels!

These rocks and the colors are really amazing.

We happened upon Little America, right before we transitioned from I-80 to Highway 30.  We pulled in to find a parking spot where we could eat our lunch.  I made chicken salad sandwiches for our lunch.  I think at least half of the traffic on I-80 stopped here to do the same thing.

Here's the link:  https://wyoming.littleamerica.com/about-little-america-wyoming/   if you want to check it out.

As we were pulling into the parking area.

Trucks, cars, semi's, RV's, FedEx, you name it they were here.

Beautiful trees throughout the large parking area.  We didn't drive around since we were pulling the RV, but I'd like to have seen what all was here.

Back on the road, almost immediately we turned off I-80 onto Highway 30 for the last leg of our trip to Tremonton, UT.

There wasn't much to see for quite awhile - much of the same earlier in the day.  You can see the haze in most of these pictures.  A few times we could smell smoke.

And then it was green.  We were both excited to see a change...a pretty green

The first town we'd seen since we left the area around Rock Springs.  Diamondville, WY.

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Lots of lonely highway.

It's been a long time since we had seen open air cars on a train.

Finally, we have made it to Utah.  I believe this is my first visit to the state.  Dean had traveled through here many years ago when his brother lived in Washington state.

At 12:54pm and the temperatures are rising. 83 degrees

Pretty red rock

We knew we had been gradually rising in elevation.  Soon the roads begin to twist and turn as we continued to get higher.  When I saw this sign, and the steepness of the hill, I hoped no one ever had the need to use it.  I asked Dean, do you think a truck ever makes it up that hill from going so fast.  We both hoped not.

 

Then, around a few more turns, and this is what we had been waiting for  Big Bear Lake - and it did not disappoint.  We were parked here just off the road alongside a new (or improved) rest area that had not yet reopened.  The water was such a beautiful aqua blue.  The beaches were full from one end of the lake to the other.  Fun in the Sun for sure!

It was so beautiful!

Cabanas, four wheelers, paddleboards, etc. were all over the shore or in the water.

Look at the color - isn't it gorgeous!

This was closer to a community and beach homes.

Someone is carving this massive bear out of a huge tree trunk.

At the top of the mountain

Beautiful countryside - I'll let you just look at these pictures.

Here the scenery began to change with more rock involved.  I'm not sure how many miles we traveled but it was many!  Every turn was another amazing scene.  A beautiful stream ran alongside of the road for several miles as well.  

We arrived at Aspen Grove RV Park in Tremonton, UT at 3:08pm.  It was quite warm here.  Because of that, it didn't take us long to set up.  We talked about going to eat somewhere but later decided we'd rather just stay in and eat leftovers.  We originally thought we'd drive around and see some of the sights, but we decided we didn't want to fight Saturday afternoon/evening traffic. We were both tired and it's better we rest.  

Tomorrow we will be moving to Wells, NV, our last stop before arriving at Brett's in Winnemucca, NV.  We had originally planned to take Hwy 30, but since tomorrow is Sunday we are going to try and leave here early enough, hoping we'll miss a good portion of Interstate traffic..  We will be passing the Great Salt Lake, something I've always wanted to see.   Our drive tomorrow will take us approximately 3.5 to 4 hours.

At 5:53pm it was 105.2 here in Tremonton, UT!!  I sure hope it's cooler in the morning!