Day 4: Valley of Fire and endless drive to Salt Lake City

First things first: The night ended early at 4:30 AM. But it was almost 7 AM by the time we got moving. Our first stop was the Valley of Fire, a state park about an hour's drive north of Las Vegas, with impressive rock formations. It is the first state park in Nevada. We took plenty of photos here and went on a short hike to the beautiful 'Fire Wave'. Before the hike, it was cool and very windy. But as soon as we started, the wind died down and the sun began to scorch. Of course...! However, the hour in the heat was worth it.

After cranking up the air conditioning and downing 1 liter of water, we embarked on the long drive to Salt Lake City, Utah. The fourth state of our vacation.

The drive, to put it mildly, was incredibly boring. The entire way was on an interstate. No turning, no changing directions, nothing! And it was 390 miles, which is around 630 km! The maximum speed was 80 mph, which is almost 130 km/h. To make matters worse, Utah is on a different time zone than California, Arizona, and Nevada. It is 1 hour ahead. So we arrived late at the hotel and couldn't see anything of the city. But we were too exhausted anyway. The check-in process was amusing. I managed to mumble my usual phrase for check-in and added my name. It's a riot here. Everyone immediately waves the white flag. So far, the typical reactions were: 'Spell your Lastname, please.' Or: 'Show me your identycard or your drivinglicence, please.' But this time it was: 'Do you really have a reservation?' In very good German! He still misunderstood my name and I had to show my ID again... The guy had lived in Germany before, in many cities. We put the pieces together: Salt Lake City, Utah, Mormon state, lived in several cities in Germany, learned German? If he hadn't been on a mission... The thing he misses most from Germany: Döner Kebab! There doesn't seem to be any authentic Döner available in the entire USA. Well, it's already late, we'll continue tomorrow. Then it's all about nature!

~ C.