Instead of staying on Highway 80 and passing through
southern Wyoming, which according to my buddy Jae is boring and uneventful, I
decided to take Highway 76 and then 36 through Colorado and the Rocky Mountain
National Park. The 3-hour detour was well worth it because I finally saw the
mountains, canyons and forests that I was expecting to see on this road trip.
Rocky Mountain
National Park – Highway 36 took me through here as I headed west towards
California. The park itself was pretty amazing to drive through and I would say
it is arguably worth the $20 entrance fee to drive through. Make sure you go in
with at least half a tank of gas because you are going to be driving through
mountains for awhile with no gas stations until you exit the park. Driving at
11,000 feet above sea level is pretty darn cool and there are plenty of elk and
moose walking around that you can see from the road. I can’t say enough good
things about this park except that once the sun sets, you have to be very
cautious driving because all those wild animals that you saw during the day now
like to hang out in the road. On the other side of the park, there is a cute little
mountain town called Grand Lake that is worth checking out before hitting the
road.
Salt Lake City – I
decided to visit my
buddy Sam along the way to SF. Similar to Cleveland, Salt
Lake City is a lot smaller than expected. The downtown area is quite small and
most of the city is residential-type buildings. Sam took me to Crown Burger, a
local burger joint that supposedly had these legendary burgers topped with hot
pastrami. The hot pastrami-topped burgers were pretty good but I think Sam
definitely worshipped the burgers more than I did. On the plus side, I didn’t
need to eat for the rest of the week.
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