SLC and LDS (06-05-12)

We had a dual purpose for visiting Salt Lake City. The first was to do our usual exploring, but Paul's mom wanted to visit the city where she spent her teenage years, so she flew in the day after we got there.

Having never seen Great Salt Lake (me, that is), which is surprisingly the largest lake west of the Mississippi river, one of our first outings was to Antelope Island. The views of the lake from the island were excellent, and we spent a few hours thoroughly enjoying the wildlife.

There were quite a few antelope, as well as Pelicans and assorted other birds, but the really fascinating viewing was the bison.

As we drove the scenic loop on the island, we saw quite a few solitary bison and were quite happy with that, but then we came across the whole herd!

We watched as hundreds of Bison came down the nearby hills and headed for the lakefront. Some sauntered, and some literally ran down the hill.  Most of them were cows with their calves, with lots of adolescent males following them. The older bulls are more solitary and tend to keep to themselves. Some of the herd crossed the road right in front of us, allowing us to get a good look at them.

It was a unique experience to be able to watch them for quite a while, in their own element, just “doing their own thing.”

Bison were re-introduced to the island many years ago and the herd has grown to the point that every year, when they round them all up in the spring for their inoculations, they sell off some of the bison to manage the herd size.

  

Temple Square is where you can find out about all things Mormon- or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). I was extremely impressed with everything about this place. The church provides free shuttle service, innumerable free tours, free access to libraries, the trolley system, museums, the tabernacle, musical programs etc.  There are many missionaries available to answer any and all questions you may have.They give tours in about 20 languages.  And no, no one tried to “convert” us or hassled us in any way at all.  Everyone was smiling and helpful. Wow. It was very clear that they are very willing to teach visitors about who they are and the history of their church.

The gardens in the square are beautiful and make for great place to stroll. There are tons of interesting sculptures.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the gold “Angel Moroni” at the top of the Temple, was sculpted by Cyrus E. Dallin. I am familiar with Dallin’s work because he lived in Arlington, the town I grew up in, and several of his sculptures are showcased throughout the town- there is also a library and a school named after him.  I did not know that he also lived in Utah at one time.

Of course, no visit to SLC would be complete without hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Our only (slight) disappointment was when we learned the short service, called The Spoken Word, would take place in the Conference Center, due to the crowds that attend in the summer time. Still, the service, and the music, was beyond amazing.

The service takes place on Sunday morning.  The doors open at least an hour before the service, during which time we could listen to the choir practice, and take any pictures we wanted.  Once the service, which is broadcast live on the radio, starts, no more pictures are allowed. 

We actually did still get to see the Tabernacle, and hear the 11,000 pipe organ, when we attended the 2 pm organ recital.

Only church members are allowed in the Temple itself, which is used for religious and enrichment programs.

We headed to “This is the Place” Heritage Park, where we enjoyed the monuments and the small visitor’s center/museum that tells the story about the arrival of the Mormons in Salt Lake City in the mid 1800s.

In the 1840s, the Mormons living in the mid west were persecuted to the point that they began a mass exodus from the state of Illinois and other nearby states. Led by spiritual leader Brigham Young, who had researched potential areas to settle, they took handcarts full of their belongings and headed west. After 1300 miles and over 3 months of traveling, they crested the hill overlooking Salt Lake valley, and Brigham Young declared “This is the right place”.  Over the next 22 years, over 70,000 Mormons made the trek to the Salt Lake area in the largest exodus of a single group in American history.

Paul’s family has been in the Salt Lake area since the early days of Mormon settlement. The medallion on this grave signifies that the person buried there (Paul’s great-great-great Grandfather) was one of the original Mormon pioneers to come across the country.

Driving around Salt Lake City visiting the old family home and gravesites gave us all the genealogy bug. We spent quite a bit of time researching in the Family History Library.  This is an incredibly well run library. As first time researchers, we were shown a movie about what the library has to offer, then we were handed forms to use for the information we found, and were escorted to computers so we could get to work! Paul and his mom worked on their family, with the help of a woman missionary.   I was curious about my dad’s family because  I didn’t know that much about them. I also had someone helping me for the first hour or so. I discovered that after my great-grandfather died, my great-grandmother remarried.  I had no idea! (If you get the bug, familysearch.org is a good place to start)

Before leaving the area, we met up with some of Paul and Gerry’s family for dinner.  Everyone had stories and pictures to share, and we all had a great time!

Towers, Arches and Tower Arch (05-27-12)

Our time in Arches National Park was pretty much spent hiking. No surprise there, I suppose.  Our first hike was to Tower Arch, which is in one of the more remote areas of the park.  To get to it, we had to drive down a long dirt road.  As we skated along at 40 mph, lizards, birds and squirrels scampered in the road ahead of us. They all managed to get out of our way, luckily for them, because we weren’t planning on slowing down- the road gets much bumpier at slower speeds!

I really enjoyed the rock formations in this park, and not just the arches. This is a formation called Marching Men.

Delicate Arch will be familiar to a lot of people.  It’s probably one of the most photographed rock formations, and it’s also on the Utah license plate.  The hike to it was a few miles, all uphill on the way there, and it was quite hot, but so well worth it.  The view was awesome and it was hard to describe, but it was just peaceful sitting on the rocks looking at the arch.

 
There are over 2000 arches in this park, and no, we didn’t try to see all of them.  They are more interesting in person, since the pictures don’t give you an idea of exactly how huge they are.  There are people in most of the pictures, which gives a little perspective.

The Three Gossips.  We passed by this formation every time we came into the park and every time we saw it, it looked more and more like 3 gossips to me.  By the time we left, I would swear you could see their facial expressions.

There is one hike in the park that you can only do by permit, or on a guided Ranger tour.  The reason is because it’s exceptionally easy to get lost in “the Fiery Furnace”.

This hike lasted 3 hours although we walked less than 2 miles.  The ranger made it interesting, as she pointed out various geologic features and discussed wildlife etc.  She also had to demonstrate  how to navigate the trail several times along the way.  There were several places where we had to put our hands on one wall of rock, and our feet up against a different rock, and sort of “waddle” between the rocks.

There were about 25 people on the hike, all with varying degrees of ability, but no one that had any physical challenges.  We had to talk to a ranger to make sure we had hiking boots, a backpack to leave our hands free, etc. 







Not that there wasn’t enough hiking to do inside the park, but our friend Nancy had told us to make sure we do the Fisher Towers hike, and it’s not in the park itself.  We took a day to drive out along the scenic road to get to this hike and I must say that I agree with Nancy, and it was my favorite hike (well, maybe Delicate Arch beat it out by a little bit).  The rock formations are incredibly majestic and completely enormous!

Trying out my Panorama setting on my new camera:


I could post pictures of all the other arches and formations that we saw, but, why? You get the idea. Some were great, some were just ok, but they were all worth checking out.

Where to stick Canyonlands National Park (05-24-12)

After typing the title and rereading it, I realized it didn’t sound quite the way I intended, but eh, I am leaving it.  I intended to write about Canyonlands National Park in my last post, but decided it would be one topic too many, so I held off.  Now that we are in Moab and have been to Arches, I am thinking “oops” because Arches will definitely require it’s own post and adding Canyonlands to it just plain wouldn’t work.  So, Canyonlands gets it’s own post!

If  I’ve left the impression that Canyonlands is just a so-so place, that would be wrong.  We really enjoyed Canyonlands but it truly is an area geared toward preservation of resources with a little hiking thrown in, so the average visitor will spend only one day (or just an afternoon) in the park.

   Canyonlands is divided into three sections that were carved over eons by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The most remote section is called The Maze.  Backpacker Magazine just named it one of the top 10 most dangerous places to hike, so we didn’t go there.  The fact that not that many people have died there is due only to the fact that no inexperienced hikers are stupid enough to hike there. That was enough to keep me out! The second most remote area is called the Needles District.  That they have a Visitors Center says that it’s ok to visit here.  We stayed in a nearby BLM campground while we explored this area.
       The spires/needles are made of  clearly defined layers of red and white sandstone. The white sandstone is beach sand that came from an ancient sea that has long since retreated.  The red sand came from the mountains.  Over many years the layers hardened into the sandstone that we see today.  I know that we’ve spent the last few weeks doing nothing but hiking in “red rock” areas, and they all start to look alike, but there are differences.  When I start to think I’ve had enough, I remember that once we leave here for Grand Teton and Yellowstone, our surroundings will change dramatically, so we’ll enjoy the red rock while we have it.


That afternoon we arrived, the temperature soared to 94° and the forecast for the next day was for a high of 96°.  Of course, the campground has no hookup, so things (Dozer) got a bit warm. We had a little time to get to the Visitor’s Center, and asked a ranger for some help picking out a hike for the following day.  We decided on the 6 mile hike to Chesler Park, but given the forecast, we decided we needed to be on the trail by 8 am at the latest.  It worked out well because we were back by noon, packed up, and headed into Moab, where we had a reservation for a week at a park with hookup (thanks for the tip Nancy!!)

From Moab we were able to access the third section of Canyonlands- Island in the Sky.  This is the area that is most accessible, and has a scenic drive to show off the best parts. From the vantage points along the road, you can see the rivers cutting through the stone, creating canyons as they go.

Canyonlands even has it’s own arches, although nothing on the same scale as Arches National Park.








We didn’t have that much time to explore Canyonlands, because Arches was calling our name, but we will come back here because there are definitely more hikes that we would like to do.  Meantime, we have lost two days of exploring.  We are sitting here in Moab being pelted by sand and debris as we endure sustained winds of 24 mph, with gusts into the 55 mph range.  It’s supposed to get a little worse later today, so we are hunkered down with the main slide in for stability. You would think I have no excuse for not getting caught up on my paperwork but actually, my new camera arrived yesterday, and we met some new friends, so I have plenty of excuses for not working on my budget.  We went over to Avril and Dan’s place last night to watch a movie, and are thinking of going out for dinner tonight.  I’ve also been trying to learn about the new camera, which has some features that I am really excited about.  It does panorama shots:
I can’t practice with it too much because I am not going to take it outside with the dust storm that’s going on. It has a GPS, which I have wanted since I saw my friend Steve’s camera, and it takes 3D photos, which I doubt I’ll use for a while. It’s pure digital, not digital SLR, but it still has settings for aperture, shutter speed etc. so all that will be a learning curve for me.  Luckily it still has “intelligent auto” so I can just point and shoot, and the camera decides what setting to use!