Ely is near the border, but before crossing into Utah, we took a detour to the 77,000 acre Great Basin National Park, which - according to our guide book - is one of the least visited national parks, due to its remote location. The Lehman Caves are the main attraction, and they are absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, we couldn't bring our camera in, but you can see some good photos and get more information about the caves at the DesertUSA web site and at the National Park Service site.

We had lunch at the Park's cafe, and then we got back in the car and finally crossed into Utah. About halfway across the state, Route 50 merges with I-70, so we covered a decent number of miles this day even though we had spent most of the morning at Lehman Caves. We ended the day in the small town of Green River (pop. 973). We had dinner at the Tamarisk restaurant, overlooking the muddy and overgrown Green River. It was sort of an upscale Denny's, which I think made it downright posh by local standards. Eating in restaurants with Kai was proving to be a challenge - after being strapped in his car seat for hours, the last thing he wanted to do when he was finally out was to sit again. So we got in the habit of checking into our motel before going to dinner, and letting Kai jump around for a while before going out to eat.

The scenery all along the drive this day was beautiful - much more so than the scrublands along I-80, which I saw on my previous cross-country drive (I-80 goes through the northern part of the state, while Route 50 goes through the southern part). Here are some pictures: