Jessi Cole Jackson

So yesterday was another amazing day in Utah.

We started it off with a small, pleasant hike. It had a couple of challenging parts, but it was mostly just a somewhat steep walk up a hill to a waterfall. The temperature hovered around 80*, which around here feels perfect. We had a few little raindrops land on our heads, but nothing much. The landscape was beautiful, all rocky, scrub-brush covered mountains and we had a great view of the valley where Orem sits once we got high enough. It was a lovely start to the day.

Us with the Utah Valley (sometimes called Happy Valley…maybe derisively?) in the background.

Victory is ours. (At this point Kyle was sad that he didn’t have on watershoes, so he couldn’t get on the rocks right up next to the little waterfall.)

From there, we drove immediately West for about 2 hours. When Kyle was in grad school out in CA he made the drive through the Salt Flats many, many times but never in daylight. We figured we were so close and we had the time, we should make the drive. So. Worth. It.

They were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before in my whole life. Gorgeous and alien at the same time. Also, bright. The sky was totally overcast yesterday and thank goodness. I think we would’ve gone blind had it been clear and sunny. We squinted a lot as it was.

We also took a lot of pictures.

I love how the cloudy sky and the mountain silhouette’s and the salt flats all blend into one another.

These people drove off the road (on purpose) and were stuck. We passed a lot of people like this. We never passed anyone who had driven off onto the flats and weren’t stuck. You’d think that would mean something.

It’s…so…bright…

For lunch, I did a quick Yelp search again and, based solely on good reviews, we hesitantly tried a mexican place/ truck stop. I wish I had taken a picture of where this place was located, because it’s in the middle of nowhere. Literally. All you can see around it is mountains and salt desert.

And yet, amazing food. Fresh. Homemade. Huge portions. I ate about half of this:

Full and happy, we headed back to the hotel for showers and a quick nap that I’m regretting this morning. I needed it at the time, but it didn’t help me get used to the time zone and so I was up at 4am. It’s going to make tonight rough.

Anyhow…more about yesterday’s adventures. In the evening we headed over to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Kyle wanted to see the dinosaurs and I was game. I’m so glad we went because it was great. Some of their exhibits rivaled the Smithsonian’s in DC or the American Museum of Natural History in NY. Not bad for a little museum in a little suburb town of Salt Lake City.

The hand stamp was an ancient bug. I am less okay with that than you can imagine.

Afterward we had dinner at a little Thai place back in Orem and called it an early night.

All-in-all: another great day. It’s so breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful out here.

Today is the last day for adventures because boot camp starts tomorrow. I’m incredibly nervous and excited.