USA ’22 – Day 22 – The Long and Straight Road

DAY 22 – Canyon Village, Yellowstone to Park City (384 miles driven, 2.56 miles walked)

Tomorrow is the last day of the season in Yellowstone when all the food and lodging shuts down. The campgrounds and cabins are already closed and the places that were still open were clearly grearing up for the shut down. This meant fewer food options for us and an offer of a free bag of ice as they were trying to get rid of it. There was a definite end of term feel to the place.

When we left Yellowstone this morning it was -4 degrees and once again we were chipping the ice off the windscreen. We’d seen all that we wanted to in the park with the exception of any bison which apparently roam on the open areas. All in all a good few days here.

Ahead of us was a six hour drive down to Salt Lake City with nothing much to see or do on the way. We had wanted to stop mid-morning for a break and a coffee. While some highway exits list what is reasonably close by, within a couple of miles at any rate, what they don’t tell you is where the centre of the place is. I don’t know if that’s because the grid system doesn’t lend itself to such a concept or if it’s just not considered important. Either way it makes finding a coffee shop or a Starbucks really hard work.

Driving south through Montana, Idaho (two new states!) and into Utah was, on the whole, pretty tedious. Lots of gently undulating farm land and not much else besides the occasional Trump banner and abandoned vehicles left to rust. Clearly it is cheaper and easier to leave them in a quiet corner of your land to rust than it is to sell on or trade in.

Finally we arrived at Newpark Resort in Park City which is a town just outside Salt Lake City that seems set up to cater to the posh ski set (so not us obviously). It is a bit like staying in the middle of Bicester Village as we are surrounded by shops and restaurants. One is serving a bison burger so maybe I’ll get to see that bison after all 😂.