Mary - 9-23-11 WY/UT Trip - Dead Horse Point State Park, UT

According to legend, the point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush, creating a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and for reasons unknown, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

 

Figment – 09-22-11 WY/UT Trip - SLC to Moab

On the way out of Salt Lake City, the mamas bought me a nice folding ladder. I hear that’s going to make a difference in how clean my face stays, so I’m pretty happy.

Today I drove thru miles and miles of construction. Sure glad Mama Conni has it down pretty good now how to center me between twin concrete barriers. Sometimes, it sure was tight.

We went thru lots of desert and that got a little boring. But, after a while, we were in beautiful red mountains. I got to go thru some canyons and that was fun.

They parked me in a very nice spot where I can admire the mountains while they go trekking tomorrow. I like that much better than always watching TV or reading books. But, hey, I’ve learned a lot doing that too.

OK, outta here, it’s been a long day.

Mary - 09-22-11 WY/UT Trip - SLC to Moab, UT

The drive to Moab was not unlike driving through a desert with foothills. No trees and limited vegetation on the ground. Some of the mountains have rocky tops while the hills were rounded and barren. Note the picture taken through the cracked and bug guts covered windshield. :( Everything changed when we turned off I-70 towards Moab. We were suddenly surrounded by spectacular views of the deepest red mountains I’ve ever seen. We’re staying just south of town in a park with a view facing the La Sals Mountains (12,721 ft) to the east and the ?? mountains to the west. They tell me the sunrises and sunsets are amazing – I, of course, never see the sun rise. We plan on going to Canyonlands on Friday, 9/23 and then to Arches on Saturday, 9/24. 

Getting closer to Moab

Salt Lake to Moab - Desert

Almost to Moab

Yum

I've included a couple of pictures just for fun. The first is a fellow camper walking his Maine Coon cat on a leash. Beautiful cat. I believe the man is the same one I caught on camera a day or two earlier standing in the middle of the street with a purple bath towel wrapped around his waist. I'm not sure if he was coming back from the pool or the shower but it was quite a sight. The second is another RVer we were parked next to at a truck stop. The picture is a bit blurred but I got such a great laugh, I had to share. It is a woman wearing a straw hat, a t-shirt type top and very lightweight cotton pajama bottoms -- note you can see her left leg through the fabric. For some unknown reason, she was heading off towards an area at the edge of the parking lot where there was nothing but gravel and desert plants -- where I walked Sadie.

Maine Coon Kitty

PJ Lady

Figment – 09-11/21-11 WY/UT Trip – Salt Lake City, UT

Well, I’ve had a nice rest in a huge KOA with tall trees. The weather has been perfect. I will say that my face is dirty and no one has bothered to clean me up yet. I do like to look pretty for all the other RVs I visit with the mamas are gone. Of course, I’m the prettiest one here.

It is getting a little old just sitting though. The mammas have been out having fun and seeing things and I’m missing out on all that. I do get to hear the stories and that is some help. They have been looking for houses and I’m not sure how to take that. Does it mean they’ll keep me with them? So many things to ponder while I sit all alone.

Then I heard they went to Park City and walked most of Main Street. Seems they had a good time. I heard Mama Mary bought over $20. worth of chocolate, so I’m sure she had a good time.

On Sunday, they went and had a nice home-cooked dinner with Maralyn K, a nice young lady who Mama Conni worked with out here 17 years ago. Apparently, they do keep somewhat in touch thru the year. I know they share the same birthday, but Maralyn is “much” younger than Mama Conni. Anyway, they came home pleasantly full and all cheerful from their special visit.

I know we won’t be leaving until Thursday since Sadie has to see the doctor again tomorrow. If all goes well, I’m sure we’ll be hitting the road. It will be good to have the wind in my face again.

I’m sleepy now – nite, nite.

Mary - 09-11/21-11 WY/UT Trip - Salt Lake City, UT (cont)

Sadie's corneal graft surgery was successful and we were able to take her home the same day. Her eye is sewn half closed and is red over the graft. Although she resembles Rosemary’s baby, the red is good – means the graft is establishing blood flow. Her follow-up appointment is in a week, so our stay in Salt Lake is going to be a bit longer than planned.

We love Salt Lake and have often thought of moving to the area. Since we’re still considering where to retire, we spent time looking at houses. Needless to say we want both mountain and valley (city) views. We found the perfect house, which wasn’t at a perfect price, but saw enough to make us confident we could find a place we’d love if we decided to move.

Great house - two story w/ basement

View of Salt Lake from Wasatch Mountains

While in Salt Lake we visited many of our favorite places. Conni lived in Salt Lake for 6-7 months when on a TDY (Temporary Duty Assignment in EDS speak) seventeen years ago. She knows a lot of the best places for site seeing. We visited Temple Square, Trolley Square (shops, museums, restaurants), Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine, and had dinner with a friend, Maralyn, from Conni’s TDY days. Maralyn also treated us to a fabulous home cooked meal and we learned about a great drink combining Fresca and Ocean Spray cranberry/pomegranate juice. Yum!

Trolley Square

Maralyn - great friend, wonderful company
 and awesome cook.

Copper Mine

Temple Square, 35 acres in downtown Salt Lake City, is the literal center of Salt Lake City and symbolic heart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On July 24, 1847, after being driven beyond the U.S. boundaries for their religious beliefs, the Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. The church’s president, Brigham Young, declared “This is the place,” and within four days had chosen the site for the Salt Lake Temple and designed the city’s grid layout, which is fabulous. The temple construction began in 1853 and was completed in 1893. The walls are 9 ft. thick at the base and narrowing to 6 ft. thick at the top.

SLC Temple

Beautiful flowers and gardens throughout Temple Square

Meeting Hall in Temple Square

Temple Square is also home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, where you can hear a pin dropped on the stage from any seat; the Family History Library, the largest genealogy library of its kind in the world; the Conference Center, which seats 21,000 people and has an expansive roof planted with four acres of trees and flowers; a 26-story church office building; and many other church buildings.

Kennecott Utah Copper’s Mine is the world’s first open-pit copper mine. Since 1903, enough material has been removed to create a pit that is more than three quarters of a mile deep and two-and-a-half miles wide. It has yielded more than 19 million tons of copper, as well as gold, silver and molybdenum. The mine was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Kennecott Utah Copper's Mine

Conni next to a haulage truck tire

Statistics of hauling truck tires

Hauling truck dwarfs a regular pick-up

We also took a drive into the Wasatch Mountains and beyond, home to many ski resorts near Salt Lake – Park City, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics, Snowbird, Alta, Solitude and Brighton to name a few. Beautiful country.

Rocky Mountain Choclate store - favorite place in Park City

Next stop is Moab in southeastern Utah.

Mary - 09-09/10-11 WY/UT Trip - Jackson Hole, WY

The town of Jackson, WY, elevation 6,209 feet, is located in the Jackson Hole Valley at the edge of the Grand Teton National Park. The town is full of shops, museums and restaurants. This time of year flowers were everywhere – in the parks, in window boxes outside of shops and in hanging baskets in front of all the businesses. Jackson, and all of Wyoming, has a very ‘western’ flavor in scenery, homes and buildings, and certainly in attire.  We stayed in a park just west of Jackson and the Snake River on the road to Teton Village Ski Resort. Next stop is Salt Lake City, UT.

Teton Village Ski Resort

Teton Village Ski Resort

Shops in Jackson

Antler Arch - Entrance to park in Town Center

Jackson Shops

One of many bronze statues in town

Chef making breakfast

Mary - 09/07-10/11 WY/UT Trip - Yellowstone

Hello all. I'm going to regress a bit and catch-up on days skipped. I'll start with Yellowstone National Park.

Congress established Yellowstone as the world’s first national park in 1872. Nowhere, including New Zealand and Iceland, are there as many geysers as in Yellowstone. The latest volcanic eruption occurred here 640,000 years ago and spewed out nearly 240 cubic miles of debris. The present central portion of the park collapsed, forming a 30 by 45 mile caldera, or basin. The magmatic heat powering those eruptions still powers the park’s geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mudpots.

We’ve been to Yellowstone before – winter and summer – so we limited this trip to the southeast side of the park. We entered the park via the south entrance and stopped at Grant Village for lunch. We traveled along Yellowstone Lake (North America’s largest mountain lake) past Natural Bridge, Bridge Bay and Fishing Bridge. Yellowstone Lake is 20 miles long, 14 miles wide, and 430 feet deep at its deepest point. Our only wildlife sighting was an elk crossing the road and bringing traffic to a halt while he meandered around deciding where to head next. What a rack he had! Evidence of the devastating fires of the 80's is visible everywhere -- many of the destroyed trees still stand but are now surrounded by new trees. The park is still magnificent and a favorite.

Waiting on lunch



Yellowstone Lake

Geysers at Yellowstone Lake

New growth following fires in 80's

Sunset at the Campground