Scene on the Road, NV, UT and WY

We're currently on a cross country road trip from New Hampshire to Oregon and posting about sites along the way. This post is about road scenes in UT and WY.

After spending a  few days visiting with friends in Oregon, we started the return trip to NH. Below are some of the road scenes as we drove Utah and Wyoming.Most of the photos were taken while Grenville was driving. The posted speed limit on Interstate 80 varied between 75 and 80 mph.

Nevada was the first state we travelled through after leaving Oregon. Our first stop was Reno, and then next was Elko. I-80 is the Interstate highway that most closely approximates the route of the historic Lincoln Highway, the first road across the U.S.

Interstate 80 (I-80) traverses the northern portion of Nevada. The interstate serves the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area and passes through the towns of Fernley, Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Carlin, Elko, Wells and West Wendover on its way through the state.

When it completed construction of the stretch of I-80 spanning the state in October 1974, Nebraska was the first state in the nation to complete its mainline Interstate highway system. The state has over 80 exits along Interstate 80 and is about 430 miles long and 210 miles wide.

Utah followed Nevada and the portion of I-80 in this state is 196.35-miles long through the northern part of the state.

I don't know the name of these mountain ranges, but they were very impressive.

I-80 extends for 402.8 miles through the state of Wyoming and reaches its maximum elevation of 8,640 feet above sea level at Sherman Summit, near Buford, which at 8,000 feet is the highest community on I-80.

We stayed in Rock Springs, WY and stopped at the Old Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins.

Farther west in Wyoming, the Interstate passes through the dry Red Desert and over the Continental Divide.

At a scenic pullover we stopped to admire this scenic view of a reservoir, where there was a lot of water sports activity. We're not sure, but It might have been in an area known as Curt Gowdy State Park.

Luckily, the skies were fairly clear the day we were traveling and the views were quite spectacular. Unfortunately, I don't know the names of any of the these mountains. 

We were in awe at so many landscape changes driving through these three western states, but there were many stretches of repetition (and boredom) as well. We saw a lot of brown (and more brown) and cattle (and more cattle), plus lots of sage brush but not a single buffalo or cowboy on the range.