I continued into west into Utah to visit Golden Spike National Historical Park, where the two halves of the transcontinental railroad were joined at Promontory, Utah:
Quick hike on the original rail bed. Central Pacific and Union Pacific were creating rail bed and laying track from opposite sides of the country, and Congress had not specified where the two competing companies would stop, so in an effort to claim as many land subsidies by building track as possible, the two companies simply built right past one another. Centered here in promontory Utah, there’s about 200 miles of parallel grades , one made for each companies track. Here’s Central Pacific’s “Big Fill”. Union’ Pacific’s “Big Trestle” was parallel to the Big Fill, about 100ish yards to the right:
I raced back to Logan, Utah to outrun a storm to overnight at the Walmart of South Logan:
Turns out today is a Utah holiday called Pioneer Day, so I was kept up late by fireworks:
After a restful Shabbos in Oacoma, SD, I headed to a local hardware store for parts to reinforce this summer’s new solar installation.
Nearby, “Dignity” stands over the Missouri River:
South Dakota is under heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires, so I decided to continue west to get back to blue skies. Along the way, I visited Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The new visitor center (since our 2010 visit) preserves the history of Cold War nuclear proliferation:
The elusive dump station photo:
After buying propane and groceries, I continued West through the Black Hills of South Dakota to overnight in Thunder Basin National Grassland near Newcastle, Wyoming.