DAY 20 - Salt Lake City

Feeling more myself I was able to enjoy the return visit to Bubba’s for breakfast.  This was a real experience; scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns – evidently made from grated potato, wholemeal toast (4 slices) and refilled coffee for under $10.  Suitable refuelled we headed back into Jackson to take in the amazing farmers’ market.  There were masses of stalls, all local produce with an emphasis on organic food as well as a load of artists doing their thing.  There was even a small band performing with enthusiasm.  One stall was selling pizza so I spent some time doing research for Edward.  The pizzas were grilled and finished off with a blowtorch!  Receiving change for two nectarines the man said “Here’s your change, one quarter and 18 paper”.  Never heard that before.  Even better was the fact that I finally tracked down a photo shop and replaced the lens cap lost on the infamous horse ride as well as a new memory card.  I’ve now taken so many photos that I’m scared to make space by deleting any more from the card. 

From Jackson we set out for Bear Lake, partly because it is there and partly to tick off Idaho as one of the States travelled through.  Most of the journey seemed to be along a wide flat valley with mountains to the left and high land to the right.  Some of the land was irrigated to support improved pasture or a barley crop.  The harvest was still in full swing, so, at least a month behind Norfolk.  In places the higher ground was attractively streaked with red where there were stands of deciduous trees but conifers still tend to dominate.  There were signs of rural decline here with abandoned schools, churches and houses.  Rick pointed out that we are more off the beaten track here; most mileage so far has been on Interstate Highways.

Bear Lake was attractive enough but weather conditions prevented it from displaying its Caribbean blue colour to best effect.  It made a good lunch stop.

From here we made good time to Salt Lake City which was preceded by a built up zone at least 50 miles long.  I thought it was a city in the middle of nowhere.  Before setting up camp there was time to explore the Mormon Temple area.  This was immaculately laid out with fountains and flower beds but we were too late to get the view from the top of the Administration building.  Successfully avoiding all the attractive young ladies whose mission is to convert all and sundry, we made our way to camp.