Miles to date: 6573
States to date: 25
Our route today will take us north to Prometory Summit then west to Elko, NV.
View 15a in a larger map
We started our day running north to Promontory Summit in Utah, the location where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific rail lines were linked. We learned that the two railroads had been requested by Congress to link their lines created an east-west line, but they were not told where to link. Since the two companies were being paid per mile of grade they actually built 250 miles past each other. When Congress found out they specified Promontory Summit as the linking point since it was halfway for each company.
The actual engines that were present for the driving of the final spike were used for years later and were actually sold for scrap at the end of their life. The National Park Service has two similar model steam engines at the site. They are working engines and they provide steam demonstrations daily.
Not far down the road is a rocket engine testing facility that has quite a static display of various engines and rocket components.
From there, we went south, then west below the Great Salt Lake. Again, there isn't much out there, although there was quite a bit of traffic. There was a 40 mile stretch of highway that we
On the western side, near Nevada, is the Bonneville Speedway. We stopped, and after some prompting from Quillan, we actually went out on the salt, at least for a half mile or so.
The salt does seem to get caked on.
We found our way to Elko, Nevada where the first order of business was to find a car wash so we could wash the salt off the car.
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