On the morning of Day 7, I decided to give myself a break. I would sleep in until 6 am. I needed to wait until around 7:30 or so to pick up my car anyway.

I made my way back to Prestige Dodge around 8 am and my car was ready and waiting for me. Everything went smoothly and I returned my rental car to Enterprise with only an extra 1,300 miles added to her.

As far as I was concerned, if my car didn't act up by the time I made it to Wyoming, I would continue my vacation with only minor adjustments. California and Nevada were out for sure, but I could add a little time into my Yellowstone schedule and make the drive to Canada a little easier.

I drove up US-287 from Longmont, not the swiftest idea if you want to get somewhere in a hurry, but it allowed me to hunt down a bagel and cafe mocha for the trip. Once you pass Fort Collins, US-287 is as good as an interstate. I plowed through to I-80 at Laramie, Wyoming in no time.

Once in Laramie, I stopped in a K-Mart and asked if they had any University of Wyoming sweatshirts. The helpful gentleman told me that corporate had them all removed for the season, even though they had a pretty good snowfall a few weeks before. He told me of a store called the Brown and Gold. I stopped in and an attractive university student sold me a nice U of W sweatshirt for $24. For those of you who buy quality university sweatshirts, you will see this was a bargain.

Bridal Veil Falls Range (Provo, UT)

I returned to I-80 and set the cruise control (of which I was thankful to have back - the Sunfire I rented was ill-equipped). I woke up about 3 hours later. No, seriously, take a book, you'll need it. Southern Wyoming is quite boring. There aren't even any exits with no names, like in Colorado, to make you chuckle. When I crossed the continental divide, I thought I would see something impressive...WRONG! I might as well have rode over an ant hill for all the excitement that afforded me.

I had a couple of storms that were passing me by. It was slightly interesting to see the formations of the clouds and the lightning as it streaked to the ground. One thing I noticed about flatlands. The sky begins to steal the show. If you are in a beautiful mountain pass, you will hardly notice the clouds in the sky. But when you are in the middle of nothing, all of a sudden, clouds look really cool...and the stretch on for days.

Once you get into southwest Wyoming, you can see the mountain ranges in Utah. This adds a little interest to the landscape. Mostly it just makes you wish you were in Utah.

By the middle of the afternoon I stopped in Evanston, on the border of Utah to make my hotel reservations in Ogden, Utah. I was hoping that I could actually squeeze in some photos before the day was out.

Although it had been a pretty nondescript day and a poor photography day, the best was yet to come. The item I had most wanted to see and photograph was only miles away.

When I entered Utah, I made a stop at the visitors center. There I found a plethora of books and brochures on a state far too intense for a single afternoon's visit. I picked up as much information as I could and plotted out the rest of my day's journey. I even contemplated staying an extra day in Utah and skipping my extra day in Yellowstone. In the morning I would make up my mind.

Bridal Veil Falls (Provo, UT)

I drove down past scenic Jordanelle State Park and Park City ski resort and made my way through Heber City on the way to Provo.

On the way, I was looking for my prime destination of Bridal Veil Falls. Of all the Bridal Veil Falls in the U.S., this is the most known. I have a picture of it hanging in my living room. As I edged closer to the area, I began to look for signs. A note for westbound travelers, if you look to the south you will see it before you see any signs for it - and the best views are from the higher parking lot that isn't marked. I stumbled upon it purely by accident.

It was even more incredible than I had imagined. The picture I have only shows the top two layers, the falls descend twice as far below and if you look closely at the picture, you'll see people below that look like pebbles.

I took over 40 pictures of the falls from various angles and with different degrees of sunlight. I stood out there so long that someone came up to me and offered to take my picture in front of the falls.

Temple Square (Salt Lake City, UT)

Once I pulled myself away, I drove south to Provo and traveled around the campus of Brigham Young University. I noticed that many towns in Utah have a letter up on a mountain to mark the town. In this case, Brigham Young had a "Y" up on the mountain.

Next, I planned to drive down through the Uinta National Forest on the Nephi highway. But it was getting late and the drive was not enough to hold my interest. I turned around an headed back north toward Salt Lake City.

When I reached town, the skyline intrigued me. I decided to drive up the mountain from downtown to get some photos. Twilight was upon my and it seemed the perfect time to shoot a couple of pictures. I had little luck getting a good overview of the city so I headed down the mountain and stumbled into Temple Square and took some photos of the buildings and flowers.

Once I had squeezed the most out of the available light, I returned to the car and drove north to my hotel in Ogden. Spent by the day's travels, I quickly hit the sheets and turned out the lights on Day 7.

> Day 8