After my morning with Zach Cooley at Arches National Park, I packed up the car and set off for a 6 hour drive to Wendover, around 2 hours past Salt Lake City. Wendover is a small town on the border between Utah and Nevada, and is right next to the Bonneville Salt Flats. I stayed at Wendover Best Western Plus which seemed the best option, and was clean with included continental breakfast. There is also a large casino in the town, which isn’t really my thing.
Leaving Wendover (not my hotel!)
The Bonneville Salt Flats are part of the remains of an enormous lake that spanned a number of states. When they are wet, they make the most amazing reflections, just like Lake Tyrrell back in Victoria Australia. When they are dry the hard packed perfectly flat salt flats host the Bonneville Speedway, where land speed records are set. Having a rental car, I couldn't drive out onto the salty flats, and the flats near the easy access points were a bit ordinary unfortunately! I did see quite a few cars out on the flats at sunset, but it quite cloudy and not so incredible.
I first came across this area in Richard Misrarch’s famous Desert Cantos, but also the iconic rest stop has been in my mind for years. The speedway races were a few weeks after I left, so I was only partially hoping to get some shots of old speed racers on the flats, but really I wanted to come and photograph the rest stop. So yep, I drove over 100 miles (one way) to photograph a rest stop.
After an evening and morning here, it was off to Salt Lake City!
