This year was Ryan’s and my third time attending Bonneville Speed Week. Since I’ve already created a Bonneville Speed Week travel guide and posted additional tips for attending Speed Week, I thought this year I’d just share some photos from our trip!
Speed Week was delayed a few days this year due to a thunderstorm, so we rearranged our trip a little and began our first day in Utah with a drive from Salt Lake City out to Mirror Lake. The drive is scenic, ascending mountains, descending through canyons, and following rivers. We walked some of the trail that follows Mirror Lake and stopped at several overlooks, including the one for Provo River Falls.
That night we went out for a few cocktails in Salt Lake City. The next day, we were off to Park City. Ryan went mountain biking while I explored the downtown area, checking out shops and picking up some books and turquoise jewelry. We met up again to have Mexican food for lunch, then I went to the City Park while Ryan continued mountain biking.
That evening, we made the drive out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, set up our tent near the Bend, and attended the Nugget Car Show. It was much smaller than usual due to the late start of the week, but we still had fun seeing the classic cars and hot rods.
The next day there still wasn’t any racing, but we explored the pits and Ryan had a good time talking to people and doing research for when he someday races out there. He even got to help a pit crew work on a car for about an hour!
The racing finally began on Tuesday, and we were out there bright and early at the long course start line to see it. There was quite the back up to get out onto the salt, but we were able to get out there and see the cars. We stopped by the rookie course for a while, too, and got some pictures there. The racing ended around 3pm as salt conditions deteriorated, and we cleaned up our car and drove back to Salt Lake City in time to catch our flight home.
Speed Week was a little different this year than usual thanks to that thunderstorm and the late start, but it was still definitely worth going for all of the encouragement and information Ryan gained that will make it easier for him to get his own car together. We were also able to explore a few new areas of Utah–Mirror Lake and Park City–which are both definitely worth a visit!
Have you been out to Speed Week before? Did you make it out this year? What’s your favorite part of Utah to explore? Let me know in the comments!