Mid West Road Trip - Wendover Utah to Denver/Lakewood Colorado

Today we left Wendover UT and started the second leg of the trip,  to Denver CO. We drove through the Bonnieville salt flats up into the Rockies through Wyoming to Colorado.

Driving through the salt flats is very weird and hypnotic. For over an hour I wanted to stop driving to get my bearings but there is no place to stop.

We stopped in Rawlins WY for lunch. I was in Rawlins in 1994 and went to a night rodeo.

Rawlins like most of Wyoming is in the high plains and was very windy. There was snow on the ground along the highway outside of Rawlins WY.

Driving through the high plains of Wyoming is a constant altitude of 7200 feet with large puffy clouds in the blue skies. There are all shades of green and brown it’s actually quite beautiful.

We crossed the Continental Divide. I had to look up what the continental divide is. It’s an invisible line that separates the major watersheds flowing to different oceans. And it extends from the arctic down to South America.

I chose the Apple Maps route with the shortest time. Started out on highway 70, and then took small county roads. We went through the old town of Wellington CO. Wellington is the Northern Gateway of Colorado

If we had stayed on highway 80, we never would have seen the countryside. A great way to travel. I highly recommend getting off the interstate and riding along the backroads.

What strikes me today is all the Trucks on the highway and there’s always a train off in the distance…American Commerce in action. I won’t think of this as flyover country anymore. America’s goods and products move along the rods and train tracks

An interesting tidbit…As soon as you cross the Colorado border there are lots of trees. It’s pretty stark contrast from WY. About 15 miles in and back to high desert. I wonder if Colorado does this on purpose.

We drove 11 hours from Wendover to Lakewood CO. It was a very long drive. We were glad to arrive. Staying here in Lakewood to see a childhood friend of Mark’s.

We leave Saturday morning for Overland Park Kansas.

Day two pics:

1. The high plains and the Rockies

2. A train bringing goods to the west coast

3. A view of the high plains of Wyoming

4. A beautiful reservoir in Utah