We got up earlier than anyone wanted to for a 15hr drive and drove in the dark through the mountains. The sun quickly started to rise, and the views were beautiful. This would be the most scenic part of our day. The rest of the day would be spent driving across southern Wyoming, northern Utah, and northern Nevada.
We usually try to avoid this long of a drive and have found that on drives longer than 12 hours, the return on investment drops. The last few hours never seem to end. So how do we make this work? Typically, Angela starts driving, especially if there are curvy roads. Her motion sickness doesn’t mesh with windy roads. The kids entertain themselves with a mix of books, music, video games, and messaging friends. Andrew and I listen to books and music, talk to each other, and write blog posts such as this one. We tend to stop every 2-3 hours but often go as far as 4 hours. During our stops, we fuel up and sometimes grab snacks. If we plan well, we have lunch food with us.
Back to the drive… The first several hours flew by, but by the time we got to Salt Lake City, it started to drag on and on. The scenery became redundant as we crossed western Utah and into Nevada. We took one extended break for the Bonnevile Salt Flats. It was hot, and the reflection off the salt just made it more intense. Walking out into the salt flats felt like walking on an alien world. The salt was still damp and quickly clung to everyone’s shoes. After the brief distraction, we jumped back into the van and drove several more hours across monotonous Nevada desert to get to our hotel in Reno.
We woke the next morning and headed to Lake Tahoe en route to San Francisco. We got slowed on the way into Tahoe as the road shared the course for a Tahoe half marathon which was underway. Once in town, we stopped and enjoyed the views from a park on the edge of the lake.
Next up was a quick few miles on the PCT for Andrew and Gareth. Andrew is still working on hiking all of the miles on the PCT and had a small gap between where he hitched from and back to trail in 2022. Angela and Gavin dropped them off and headed to Echo Lake Chalet to wait and enjoy the views. The miles went by quickly, and we all jumped back into the van to finish the drive to San Francisco.
Emge Adventures 
Salty dog
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