It was another early start this morning, as we had an ambitious itinerary planned; a visit to our fifth national park in Utah, followed by a drive all the way across the state to neighbouring Nevada. The remaining national park in Utah which we hadn't yet visited was Canyonlands, about 30 miles away from Moab. It's generally a less visited national park than Arches, although I'd read that since Arches implemented a timed reservation system, the rangers there have been directing anyone who turns up without an entry permit to Canyonlands instead. We wanted to get there early to beat any crowds and also avoid the worst of the heat, as it was forecast to be another very warm day.
The road into Canyonlands was impressive.
There are tonnes of viewpoints here; some which you can drive to, some which require a short hike. The first one we stopped at – Shafer Canyon Overlook – was one we could drive straight to.
From the car park, a short path led us down some steps towards the viewpoint.
It was just after 8am by this point and the sun was very bright, making it difficult to take photos in some directions.
It was a spectacular viewpoint, though.
And we had definitely beaten the crowds, because there were only a handful of other people there.
We made our way further around the viewing area.
From here we could see all the way down the canyon, to the road running through it.
I really loved the view 
It was possible to walk round the corner and stand on this rock for a different perspective.
(The path wasn't quite as narrow as it looks!)
The view from here was pretty spectacular too
So far, first impressions of Canyonlands were very good!
The second viewpoint I wanted to visit was called Mesa Arch. This one required a walk of around 15 minutes to reach it.
We made our way downhill, initially down steps ...
... and then over rock.
I'm not a huge fan of hiking over rock.
It was only a short section though and then we got our first glimpse of Mesa Arch.
This is one of the most photographed arches in Utah, so even at this time of the morning (it was still before 9am) there were plenty of other people there.
We still managed to get some good photos though
Admittedly, our selfie didn't come out amazingly well because of the sunshine.
The photos I tried to take of Tim suffered the same fate!
But it didn't matter, because a nice lady offered to take a photo of us together, and that came out a lot better
I was glad we'd got to the arch this early; I can only imagine how busy it would have been after 9am.
Our next stop was a place called Green Canyon Overlook.
This was another viewpoint which you could more or less drive straight to.
There was just a short walk from the car park to get to the viewing platform.
Then we could see all the way down to the Green River.
The next viewpoint on my list was something rather different: Upheaval Dome. This one definitely required a hike, which started with some steep uphill from the car park.
A sign at the car park warned us against a longer hike, which starts from the same point.
It was still only about 09.30, but it did already feel like a very hot day.
The path was taking us to two separate viewpoints. We got to the first fairly quickly and had our first view of the huge depression known as Upheaval Dome.
Upheaval Dome is believed to be the site of a meteor impact which took place around 170 million years ago.
It was really huge and absolutely fascinating to see.
How often can you say you get to visit the site of a meteor impact?!
We decided to carry on to the second viewpoint, but that turned out to be harder to get to.
It involved walking over this slickrock, which was quite steep in places. I didn't hugely enjoy the experience!
We didn't quite make it as far as the official second viewpoint in the end, but we did get to another point from where we could look down into the crater.
Time for another selfie!
Then we retraced our steps, back over the rock.
I was pleased to get off the rock and back onto a more normal path.
The final viewpoint on my wishlist for today was Buck Canyon Overlook.
We could tell the park was getting busier by the time we got to this one; we only just got a parking space.
I'm glad we did because it was superb view of the canyon.
I found a nice spot to sit and enjoy it
I could have spent the whole day exploring viewpoints in Canyonlands, but we were conscious of the need to press on. We still had a lot of driving ahead of us today.
We drove for two hours through Utah, stopping in the small town of Price for lunch. We parked next to what is possibly the biggest American flag I have ever seen.
After Price we had another 3.5 hours of driving to go. A lot of it was actually very scenic; I was pleasantly surprised by how green and mountainous this part of Utah seemed to be.
The journey became a bit more difficult later on when we had to negotiate our way around the outskirts of Salt Lake City. The highway we were on had seven(!) lanes at times and we had what felt like a very American experience, driving past more huge flags ...
... roadside adverts for personal injury lawyers ...
... and bright yellow school buses.
We also drove past several Mormon temples.
Once we got past Salt Lake City, the road became a bit calmer again.
We drove along the bottom of the Great Salt Lake ...
... and got a few glimpses of it from the motorway.
We were about 100 miles from the border of Utah with Nevada at this point and it began to become obvious from the roadside advertising. Utah is a very religious state and gambling is completely illegal. We drove past lots of signs advertising casinos just across the border in Nevada.
Nevada also seemed to be advertising other types of entertainment, which presumably aren't legal in Utah 
The closer we got to Nevada, the more mountainous the scenery seemed to become.
And the more frequent the casino adverts became!
Although we had passed the Great Salt Lake now, there was still a lot of evidence of salt in the landscape.
In places, we drove past literally huge piles of it.
There was so much here, it almost looked like snow.
We were driving towards a place called the Bonneville Salt Flats.
These are a remnant from an ancient lake, which dried up around 14,000 years ago, leaving behind huge deposits of salt and other minerals.
The area is completely flat and stretches for around 30,000 acres.
We were able to pull over into a rest area by the side of the motorway and walk down onto the salt.
It was like walking across a huge salty desert.
The surface of the flats was fascinating; full of cracks and ridges.
When you looked at the ground close up you could tell that it was covered in salt.
It was such a unique place, and bizarre to be able to just step onto it from the side of the motorway.
Once we got back in the car, we were only a couple of miles from Nevada. This is a new state for us
We are staying for the night at a casino hotel, just across the state border in a place called West Wendover.
The outside of the hotel looked like it was trying to be quite grand!
We checked in and have a room with two large beds.
We're not planning to spend time in the casino, but we did pop in to have a look 
It's been a long day of travel but a very exciting one
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