Arches National Park

Today we toured Arches, we spent about 3 hours driving through the park and going for 2 or 3 short hikes to view some on the arches.  Following are a few of the pictures we took......................

                                                                      Three Sisters

                                                                    Balanced Rock

                                                              OK, time for some  arches

Here's Judy in the entrance to the below arch.

Moab, UT

An easy 125 mile day to Moab, Utah...........................................

And here's our home for the next 4 nights.  It was in the high 80's today and the forecast for the next several days is in the low 90's, too hot.  Hello Jean, how are you doing?

  

Helper, UT

Well, the rear Big Foot did retract this morning (S L O W L Y) so we are off to see a couple National Parks that are on Judy's bucket list.  We are not rushing so today was a 156 mile and 3 hour tow to Helper, UT.  I'm not putting the rear Big Feet down as we are in a somewhat remote site.  Guess what.....we had a phone call from Devyn!  This is a red letter day!!

Really looks like a nice campground huh?  I'm not going to show you a picture looking the other way. This is a place to rest and wait for 2 days as the CGs in Moab, UT are booked this weekend, we'll travel the 120 miles there Sunday as we have a reservations.  Here's a couple pictures from today's trip....

Windmills and snow fence.

Salt Lake City

Well, the group of four has slit up.  Mel & Dee, Roy & Carol, and Ron & Roberta have headed south to Maob and we are in Ogden in a mobile home & RV park for 2 nights.  We have a bus tour Thursday afternoon and evening of Slat Lake City including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Judy is excited!  Here's our site for 2 nights.

When we set up I had trouble with a rear Big Foot leveler, it went all the way down and would not retract, whatever I tried.

What a pain in the ass.  I called Quadra Manufacturing and we tried several things, none of which worked.  After 2 1/2 hours and swapping the up and the down hydraulic lines (ATF was squirting out all over) twice it finally retracted.  I'm still leary of it's reliability.  We shall see.

A statue in SLC honoring the Pony Express Riders, preferably young teenagers, 120 pounds and orphans.

"This is the place" a quote from Brigham Young, the second Mormon leader, after leading his flock west in the 1830's after religious persecution in the eastern states.  He said he had seen the view from this spot in a vision.

                                                             Brigham's farm home.

Here's the Brigham's "Lions House" named after his nick name "the lion of the Lord".  We had dinner here.  The house was large to accommodate his 51 children and 27 wives.  Smart?  You decide. Me....nope.

Utah state capitol.  A couple decades ago it was refurbished and two large office buildings were added, one for the senators and one for the representatives.  They wanted them made of the same stone as the capitol building but it was not available due to new federal regulations.  What to do?  Well lets imprort it from Italy, it's only the taxpayers money.  So 750 million dollars later Utah had a grand refurbished capitol building and two new office buildings for their representatives and senators. Oh, I should mention they work 45 days a year.

                                  And a couple pictures of the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple.

And here's what Judy really came to see.....................................

There are 360 members of the choir and the process they have to go through to be a member is VERY rigorous.  The choir (and orchestra) are in street clothes as the had a recording session and we were not sure when or even if we would get to see and hear them.  They rehearse Thursday evenings. We both could have spent hours listening to them and watching the antics of the conductor.

Promontory, UT & the Golden Spike Nat'l Park

Today we were up early to have the truck at a Ford dealer in Ogden to check the front brakes and wheels, it's making an intermittent noise.  No problem was found and we were on way home by noon.  We picked Mel & Dee up and traveled the 25 miles to Promontory where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific met in May 1869 connecting the east with the west.

And here's Judy examining the golden spike.....well.....a replica.  The real one came from a private individual (Leland Stanford....the same as Stanford University) so it's on display in California.

Competition existed between the two crews and as they were nearing Promontory on day the Central Pacific laid a record 10 miles of track in one day winning a $10,000 bet and this sign commemorated the event.

Here's the Jupiter, a replica of the Central Pacific's original; in the summer they also run replica engine 119 of the Union Pacific nose to nose.

 

                                  As you can see here Promontory is in the middle of nowhere.

                                     And here's where they met and the last spike was driven.

                           The middle of nowhere also had one more thing a couple miles away...............

                               some rockets at Morton Thiokol where rocket fuel is manufactured.

After returning home we visited a Mormon tabernacle in Brigham City.  The inside was kind of plain.

Across the street was a Mormon temple, much larger.  We went inside but only a few Mormons approved by their leaders are allowed inside.  The temples support several congregations where the tabernacle supports one as I understand.  Above is the side and below the front view.

Brigham City, Utah

One last picture of Arco, ID.  If you click on it and enlarge the picture of mountain you will see lots of numbers painted on it.  This was done by the local high school graduating classes. The oldest we saw was 1922.

                                                           Here's a closer look.

We noticed that the country now has much more farming and is much greener.  The trees are turning red also.

                                               Our site in Brigham, UT for a couple days.

Craters of the Moon National Park

        Isn't this a beautiful National Park?  Don't you just want to climb up that magnificent black hill?

                                                    That's Roy coming down the path.

                               Roberta checking out the natural beauty of Craters of the Moon.

 

The fearsome four.  Ron, Judy, Carol & Roy.  They went for a cave (really a lava tube) tour but when Judy saw the uneven entrance she dropped out rather than place her new hips at risk.
The 800 acre park was formed about 15,000 years when volcano(s) erupted here and lava flowed.  When the eruptions stopped the lava hardened and formed this National Park.  I imagine that when it was named decades ago man had not yet been to the moon so someone assumes the moon must look like this place. To me, Craters of Hell better describes the area, it is so depressing.