Holiday USA West Coast Road Trip in Aug 2022: Day 3 – Salt Lake City to Twin Falls

Salt Lake City to Juniper Rest Area

We were just under halfway to Twin Falls.  It was a long old drive today, so the last (just over) half of the trip we decided to split into two: aim for a break at Juniper Rest Area and then complete the final 100 miles to Twin Falls after that.

The traffic around SLC was really heavy by 10am on Saturday morning, so we had to be patient before it eased as we headed further north.

The one thing of particular note was the seriously heavy rain we hit along this stretch.  As a driver, I have never experienced anything quite as bad as that before.  At one point, we started to aquaplane, and it was one of those moments when you hope not to over-compensate the sliding that you were experiencing.  Luckily the car righted itself and we were able to slow down and take things a little easier.  It was noticeable that our Mustang was the only car that appeared to be struggling in the downpour!

Juniper Rest Area was not much to talk about, but it was an opportunity to use the facilities and stretch our legs.  It was still only 11:30am at this point, so we had done the hard yards early in the day.

Juniper Rest Area to Twin Falls

The final 100 miles were a breeze.  We were looking forward to reaching Twin Falls which we had visited back in 2014 when we last went to Yellowstone and we were really keen to go back.

The Hilton Garden Inn (HGI) at Twin Falls is a fairly big hotel and has a large communal area.  We had checked in online so in theory my digital key should let us into the room.  However, after headong straight up to our room, the digital key failed miserably.  So back to reception to pick up a physical key and we managed to get into the room easily enough.

After such a long drive it was great to relax on a king sized bed.

Follow the whole story here: Holiday USA West Coast Road Trip in Aug 2022