Westward Ho!

Utah-along I-70; image from flickr by respres

Long before we actually got married we decided our honeymoon would be a trip up the west coast, so here we go!

What we did:

He said:

Leaving Denver,  Mapquest wants us to go north to Wyoming and then head west, but we want to see the Rockies and “moonscape” of Utah, so we take I-70 up towards Vail before heading north to I-80. The mountains are truly majestic,  but the real thrill of the trip is the 20 miles before Glenwood Springs. The road winds, on two levels, through the Glenwood Gorge over the Colorado River. The views are awesome and I never tire of seeing them.  After Glenwood Springs, it’s a couple of hours before one gets to the “moonscape” of Utah.

Utah was once covered by a giant ocean and the rock formations look like sculptures carved from what was once the sea bottom and are every bit as exciting as postcards depicting them. It goes on for miles  before turning to a valley that leads to Salt Lake City.

Arches National Park- Utah; image from flickr by Paraflyer

Just before entering the valley we stopped for lunch in Green River at a family restaurant (I’m sure Marla remembers the name as it comes from a now, unwelcome shrub brought to the US from France in the 1800′s) overlooking the river. The food  was great and the respite from the driving was more than welcome.

She said:

This is the third time I’ve driven this route, and I am always amazed with the diversity and beauty in this Country.  There are some  boring sections, and we did bring some books on tape which helped to make those sections especially interesting.  Our GPS ,”Rosie”, kept trying to take us on the back roads to speed up the trip.  I wanted to stay on the main drag (expressway) for comfort-bathroom breaks, possible emergency- and sometimes the stops were few and far in between. When we got off for lunch we always tried to find the local restaurant in town.  We would take our time and were always pleasantly surprised with what we would find.  We stopped for lunch in Green River at the Tamarisk Restaurant.  We had a table by the window overlooking the Green River.  The restaurant was clean, but as you can expect, a little outdated.  I had a wonderful BLT, and would stop there again.

Category: Green River, Utah, United States, West, what we did, where we ateTags: Arches National Park, Green River, Utah, Tamarisk, Utah |