If you wait until you get to the race course the choices are more limited.Īttached to the gas station is a small cafe that’s always packed with spectators and race teams. They have the best selection of event shirts, so this is where you want to buy one. It’s also your last chance to fuel up and buy ice. … which is a guaranteed place to spot hot rods. The only place to stop before you hit the salt is this old gas station… If you’re a normal person who sleeps this is probably what you would see. Of course Larry and I experienced this part of the trip in the dark as we raced the rising sun each morning. After exiting you follow the paved road north, then around The Bend until the pavement turns to salt. Speed Week doesn’t just bring out race teams though a whole lot of hot rods, classics and jalopies also descend on the little town.įrom Wendover, a quick trip on Interstate 80 brings us to the turn-off for Bonneville Speedway. There are several racing events that take place throughout the year, but Speed Week in August is the largest and most well known. In fact the state line cuts right through the street where the hotels and casinos are located. Looking at this map the salty part is obvious, but we’ll start our journey in the nearest civilized place – the small gambling town of Wendover, situated directly on the border of Utah and Nevada. Since there aren’t any permanent structures at Bonneville and the area is so vast, Larry and I had our work cut out for us to describe Bonneville through pictures and words. Thankfully this has recently been remedied, and the mining companies are now pumping the salt they used to throw away back onto the flats. Wikipedia says that up to 18″ of salt has been removed since 1963 when mining began. I mean, how do you describe a space that’s nothing more than one giant blanket of blinding white earth?ĭid you notice I said the salt flats are currently 30,000 acres? They used to be three times as large, but have been shrinking due to unchecked mining operations. So when Rod asked me to do a Temple of Speed story on the Bonneville salt flats it made me stop and scratch my head. No plant life, no insects, not even a blade of grass sticking out of the dirt somewhere. Bonneville is a mighty big place – the salt flats currently cover 30,000 acres of nothing but wide open, flat space.
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