Part 1
I started off my journey from the west coast to the MidWest after my travel assignment in Fresno, CA ended. After spending a week with my sister, I headed East. The greatest part of this journey for me was that I was able to see so many family and friends along the way. I highly encourage you to find a route that can include visiting people you know, it makes the trip that much better! Plus you have a local at your fingertips to show you the best spots that aren’t just what you see when you google “10 best things to do in…”
A Full Day Driving
From Morgan Hill, CA to Salt Lake City, UT, it’s about 785 miles. This was the longest day of driving from West to MidWest. Along the drive, I stopped in the mountains for gas (BIG mistake if you’re on a gas budget), and took some pretty pictures. It was still cold and there was snow on the ground up there.
The drive was so pretty for the first 5 hours. Once you get past Reno, NV, though, it’s basically desert until you hit Utah and see the salt flats. There are pretty, rocky hills through this area too, but nothing like the mountains as you come into Reno.
I actually made a detour into Fallon, NV to see my uncle, grab lunch (a yummy salad), and break up the drive. Being out in the desert like that means there aren’t many stops, so I recommend getting off in Reno somewhere for gas and food if you are taking this route. I made it to south SLC around 10pm-remember you lose an hour going east in this area and it was about a 13 hour drive.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sunday
I have a friend who has lived in the Salt Lake City area most of her life, so she was an excellent tour guide! I also was able to stay with her, so I didn’t need a hotel. However, Salt Lake City has great options for hotels! Here are a few ideas.
I planned to spend 2 full days here, so we spent Sunday morning at a bar/speakeasy called Prohibition. (Yes it is meant to be ironic ha!) This was such a cool spot for brunch and mimosas. I highly recommend it-the food was great, the ambiance was so fun, and the drinks were delicious!
After brunch we walked across the street to a huge mall and shopped a little bit. In one store, a woman recommended a bar and silent disco called Waikiki. I love to dance so we were very intrigued even though it was a Sunday! Unfortunately, I was getting over a cold, so we went back to her house and napped. This, of course, led to us staying in that night; relaxing and catching up on each other’s lives. We ordered in Shake Shack, which was bomb if you’ve never had it! If I’m back in SLC some weekend I will definitely check out the night life.
Monday
Salt Flats
The next morning we got up early and headed (back) west on I-80 to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This was something I really wanted to see. Since it was still cold at this time, physically getting into the Great Salt Lake was not going to happen. If you’ve ever thought about doing that, I’ve heard its really disgusting, but probably one of those things you just do to say you’ve done it!
Anyway, the salt flats were really cool to see! It is quite a ways out of the city (about 2 hours). So if you aren’t wanting to drive, I don’t recommend it. We only spent 20 minutes here taking pictures and enjoying the beauty of it. If it had been nicer weather, I would’ve loved to have a picnic and hang out awhile longer.
Some Utah Culture
After that, we made the drive back to the city. I have to mention a few places we stopped that are very Utah-y according to my friend. While driving around the city, you’ll see a bunch of soda shops. Since there is a large Mormon community in Utah, it’s almost* like they replace the liquor stores! We stopped at one called “Sodalicious“. They had a whole menu of different flavors that they would mix together to make special drinks! I got the Castaway, which is 7Up, lime, guava, and coconut. Naturally, we had to get the largest option and some of their cookies, which are really delicious too. I recommend the chocolate chip oatmeal.
Speaking of cookies, that is another thing you’ll see a lot of when driving around. There are a few different cookie shops (not as many as the soda shops). We went to Twisted Sugar. If you missed the soda shop before, they sell soda here too! We just ordered a few cookies to try. My favorites were the cookie butter oatmeal and the twisted sugar cookie, which rotates in flavor. That day it was a coconut lime- you can see a trend in my preferences!!
Dinner
For dinner that night, we got Margherita pizzas from Settebello’s Pizzeria Napoletana. 10/10 recommend this place! It was cute, fast service, delicious pizza, and a good selection for wine and beer. Next door is a gelato place to top off your night in “Italy”. We didn’t get gelato (see above-we ate so many cookies!) but it looked really good.
Drive to Denver, CO
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning I got up early and hit the road towards Denver. I had a hard time my first few hours of this trip because it snowed the night before. Plus, as I started climbing the mountains, it was still snowing up there. It can be really sketchy driving in this and I almost stopped to see if it would pass, but decided to plow through.
This drive was only about 8 hours, so I enjoyed it quite a bit after the stress of the snow. I am bummed because the snow kept me from taking a more scenic route to the south. If you do take this trip, I challenge you to get off the same beaten path of Interstate 80 and take a different route if it’s safe!
Anyways, I have another friend in Denver, so I stayed with her and her boyfriend right in the city. Like in Salt Lake City, Denver has some cool hotels. Check some of them out here.
Dinner and Dessert
When my friend got home from work and we went out to dinner at a place called Maine Shack. If you don’t like lobster, this is NOT the place for you. I happen to love seafood, and this lobster roll did not disappoint! If you clicked the link to their website, you’ll see that my picture of it is exactly what they show on their site. I kept it simple and got the Maine Shack roll. They do homemade chips on the side and I also got a side salad. This place is a little more pricey if you’re on a budget, but if you’re willing to splurge for a meal, this is the one!
After dinner, we walked up the road to Little Man’s Ice Cream. It’s a cute outdoor walk-up window with rotating flavors of homemade ice cream. Oh, and its in a massive, 28-foot tall milk can. I got a cone with a scoop of their banana pudding flavor and it was to die for!
Wednesday- day
Hiking El Dorado State Park
The next day my friend had work, so I got up early and went hiking north of the city. Pro-Tip: if you have trouble knowing where to start when looking for places to hike while traveling to a new place- AllTrails is my go-to hiking app. It’s super user friendly and has hikes all over the world on it. It even shows you what level of difficulty it is so you know before you go. One of my other favorite features is the comments section. People will leave comments about the terrain and if the difficulty level listed is appropriate or not.
The park I chose to go to is called El Dorado State Park and sits at the top of a tiny town with dirt/gravel roads. It’s $10 to enter and park, or if you have a park pass that works too. I hiked about 2 miles up on a trail called Rattlesnake Gulch, which led to an amazing view of the Continental Divide. At the top, there are two lookouts on this trail.
The first is Crags Hotel Ruins. There is an old stove/fireplace and a few other spots with old ruins. This was cool, but the views were really at the next lookout a little further up. It opens up to the Continental Divide, which basically divides the western part of the United States from the rest of it by its waterways. I don’t know much about it to be honest, but it was beautiful!
Red Rock Amphitheater
It was still cold that day and by the time I hiked back down it was starting to flurry, but it was still early in the day. So from there I went back south towards Denver to see Red Rock Amphitheater. This is just something you have to do when you’re in Denver. I’d love to come back to see someone play. I just took photos and walked around.
You can go inside where there is a sort-of museum showing everyone who has played there and what year. It’s such a historic place for music! I ate at the Ship Rock Grill-the only place to eat. I just got a caesar chicken wrap, but honestly, I wouldn’t really recommend this place unless you’re starving.
Wednesday-night
That night, we went out to one of the coolest mini golf places I’ve ever played. It’s called Urban Put and has a really fun ambiance. There is a full bar inside which was nice-we got a drink before we started playing. But the best part about it is that it is themed all-things Denver. It was really busy, but we had a blast!
From there, we walked down the road a couple of blocks to the Milk Market, which was super cool too! It’s an indoor-outdoor space with a bunch of different restaurants, bars, and shops. Since it was a random Wednesday night, it wasn’t really busy, but you could tell the place can come alive on those summer weekend nights. I’d love to go back there.
Driving the Flatlands of the MidWest
The next morning I headed out early-ironically, my friend had a flight to Iowa to visit her family (she couldn’t get it refunded to drive with me). So I dropped her off at the airport and started the last leg of my drive east to Iowa. This was another 12 hour day, but since I left so early, I made it home before it was dark. Driving from Denver has its perks. Nebraska feels shorter-but honestly it is one of the most boring drives you’ll ever do.
I ended up spending over a month in Iowa before heading off on my next adventure, and it was great having time with family and being able to just relax and enjoy. There isn’t too much to do where I’m from, so I’m going to end the post here. If you want ideas on things to do in Eastern Iowa, let me know in the comments! And if you have other stops you’ve made on a road trip from the West to the MidWest, I’m all ears!
If you enjoyed reading about this roadtrip, you might like some of my other roadtripping blog posts.
