This Harvest Host site in Utah we are staying at tonight is steeped in WWII history. The airfield was opened in 1940 with a few buildings and bombing and gunnery ranges for training. This quickly grew to several hundred buildings after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The B-17 and the B-24 heavy bombardment groups were created and trained here during the war. It was also the training and test site for the atomic bomb group under Colonel Paul Tibbets, Jr. and the B-29 “Enola Gay” that eventually bombed Hiroshima to end the war in the Pacific. The museum is closed on Sunday, but still allowed us to stay in the parking lot. Many other Harvest Host members were there, too. There are only a few places to stay in this part of Utah.

West Wendover and the Salt Flats Cafe

Today the town of Wendover is still a remote spot, but hosts many casinos in West Wendover, as the town straddles the border with Nevada. We ate supper at the Salt Flats Cafe, which serves Mexican food at reasonable prices, no alcoholic beverages, and takes cash only. The walls reflect the salt flats racing history with many pictures displayed. We easily walked from the airfield parking lot for a delicious meal.

Along the way: Bonneville Salt Flats

We saw the fun sign below at a rest stop along with many roadside messages written with rocks in the white salt and sand along I-80 as the interstate is not fenced off here.

The last rest stop right before Wendover has a large parking lot and covered picnic tables for people to use while walking out on the salt flats. The race track is several miles out in the salt flats, where many land speed records have been set. The very white surface is surprisingly bumpy and looks like it would not be a smooth ride in a vehicle. We did see a couple of SUVs out driving on the salt flats near this rest stop. The race track top speed record is 630 mph (1970 by Gary Gabelich in the rocket-powered Blue Flame). We later read that they smooth the surface with heavy machinery before races.