Wife and I took a road trip this week. Calif, Oregon, Idaho and now I'm in Wendover, Utah. Speed week isn't until next month but, I'm here now. I gotta at least see Bonneville before I die! Is there anything to see when Speed Week isn't going on? Where do I go and directions to get there would be great! Just a wide eyed tourist looking for anything LSR related. Thanks in advance!
Go to the museum down by the air port dedicated to the Enola Gay. They trained there, bunkers are still in the tarmac where they simulated loading what they had no idea IT was. Drive to SLC, about 90 miles and see the lake, good art museum at the college, neat island with buffalos there too.
The road to the salt flats is east of town off to the south of I80. Should be a nationally park service sign by the exit. Hope this helps. Anyone in town can give you directions. Phil
Salt Flats is exit 4 on the Utah side, there is a truck stop there, right at the access road. A quick google search did not show any visitor center. https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/parks-outdoors/bonneville-salt-flats/ The motels, food, casinos are on the Wendover, NV side of the state line. Maybe this will help, the internet tells me they open at 9 AM on Monday https://www.westwendovercity.com/what-s-new/tourism-convention-bureau
Go east to exit 4. You may not be able to drive on the salt but you can get close. Here is a pic from today's weather cam.
Sit in the Smith’s parking lot in West Wendover and wait for I-80 to open from the brush fires around exit 90 in Utah. Jim
A must do for car folk even in the wife's daily driver is the Photo in front of the Salt flats sign a short ways up the road to the salt from the truck stop. Probably the most photographed sign in the hot rod world as guys get a photo of it if they stop and take a photo of the car in front of it or not. Then on down the bend in the road (to the right0 and a ways down to the END of the road for another photo op. Then you can show your buds that you were there. The checkers at the grocery store were pretty good about asking if you needed cash back when you paid with a debit card last time I was there. Saves the high fees out of the cash machines.
Agree, the old Wendover Airfield museum is a good way to kill some time. Take Exit 4 and go north, photo the sign ad suggested, keep going and turn east at bend in the road and go about 4 miles to l ands end where the road drops onto the salt. Take another picture. If solid and dry you can drive on the salt a bit, stay away from the edges to avoid getting stuck and big tow bill.
You could also count the T shirts at the truck stop,. That would take a few hours. BTW, there is a visitor's center at the west end of town.
We were at Bonneville in mid October of 04. It was right before they were to start shooting the movie " The World's Fastest Indian" There were a few race cars on the salt and an they let me drive out on the salt and walk around and check out the cars. I wonder if that's why my car rusted out so fast? Neat place to visit!!
The camera has been showing dry salt for about 9 days now, so you can probable drive out on it. If there's standing water, stay clear as a tow off the salt when you get stuck can cost thousands - no joke!!! At least drive to the end of the road where the salt begins. There is another marker sign there, in horrible condition unless they've replaced it. The one by the truck stop is much newer.
I stopped by for my first visit on April 27th 2019. This is what we saw. We were told it was about 2' deep and would be gone by July.
OK.....I've been there. I can die now! Pretty cool and easy to find. I didn't drive onto the salt (no point) but I walked out onto it and took a video. It was a little slushy and there were a couple of cars out on it (tourists like myself). A 20-something female took her Nissan grocery getter out onto the salt, stabbed the throttle and tried to set her own land speed record. I watched her drive off into the distance....alone....8:30 at night. Hope she makes it back! Photographic proof.....
I went last year for Speed Week 2018. It was HOT! I had heat exhaustion. Guys were not kidding on drinking LOTS of water. It would be real easy to get lost out there with nothing around. If your going to go out on the salt with your own car, get it washed off real good and fast. We rented a car down by my parents in St George. It's really to bad you weren't there for speed week, it's really something to behold.
If you're gutsy enough, drive up that narrow dirt road to the top of the ridge that overlooks the salt to the east, and the desert to the west. You have to go up the mountain through the neighborhoods, but eventually you can find the dirt road. It's NARROW, and it made me nervous as hell when I did it in '98. Not much room to turn around at the top.... But what a view!!!!!!!!
there's more than just the museum at the old Wendover Army Airfield. there are old original collapsing barracks, and many of the other buildings there were sold after BRAC closed the base back in the 80's(?) and the property was given to the town of Wendover. During WWII, there were many thousands of troops and their families stationed there. They had everything that a base has -warehouses, machine shop, chapels, chow halls, a pool, etc. A lot of it is still there. 9000 ft runway. The place was declared so toxic that it was an EPA Superfund site. That's why Uncle Sam "gave" the entire property to Wendover. But if you're poking around too long, some guy who lives there will confront you and he's not very welcoming. I suspect he owns all the old cars there with the NOT FOR SALE and NO TRESPASSING signs everywhere. I also went into a pawn shop near the Motel 6, and found a book titled Wendover Winds of Change by Ronald R Bateman. It gives and incredible history of the area. if you can find a copy, i recommend picking it up.
In 1954 they opened the base to the racers. We could stay in individual rooms in the barracks and got to use all of the motor pool buildings to work on race cars. The rooms had no furnishings so we had to sleep on the floor but it was free. The motor pool area looked like Gasoline Alley at Indy.
I did a drive-by in the area where the cars not for sale are. Didn't want to stop, felt like I was being watched.
Yeah, that dude watches everybody. My son and I were looking at some junk alongside what appeared to be an old phone company building. that guy pulled up like we were committing a crime, but we were just looking at some old wire reels and taking pictures. He told us that everything there is private property and not to trespass. we just said ok and left. I have taken some pictures of the cars though, lotta straight old steel out there.
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