Today, we finished our journey through Utah, traveled across northern Nevada, and made our way into California!

We had decided when arranging the itinerary that we would save the additional two hours to reach our final destination for tomorrow. So, Sacramento was tonight’s stopping point.

We saw (from a distance) the Salt Lake that gives Salt Lake City its name!

Utah was still as flat as ever. The ability to see for miles upon miles was so strange, in comparison to the closed-in life of the East Coast I’m accustomed to. Still, the distant mountains were slightly more interesting than the harvested fields of Nebraska.

The ever-stretching terrain made moments when a picture of a passing train or a distant rock formation could be taken, an opportunity to be taken advantage of.

If that “hazardous material” sign doesn’t make you think twice about the existence of Area 51, I don’t know what will.

After passing through Reno, we drove on until we found ourselves in California. (Unfortunately, we weren’t able to capture a California state sign photo. They placed it on an uphill, mountainous, two-lane road with a shoulder width that would have given even a VW Bug a hard time.)

So, I instead snapped photos of the pines and towering mountains. We ogled at ski slopes and the tiny figures racing down them and even passed by Lake Tahoe.

The real shocker was when we entered Sacramento and saw palm trees along the road. Something I’ve always associated with white beaches and blue ocean growing in suburban neighborhoods just seemed so out of place in my east-coast mind.

Tomorrow, we conclude the roadtrip in San Francisco! I don’t know about you, but I feel as if I had only just begun this journey yesterday!

Time surely does fly when you’re having fun (and have Harry Potter audiobooks playing in the background)!