Across the Country-day 11-Arches National Park

Day 11 In Moab
The pictures are worth a thousand words. It is beautiful country. The Green River...

Today we are off the see the Arches National Park. started in 1971. The aches are caused by salt beds.
The largest arch in the park is called Landscape Arch which is 306 feet span.  In 1991 a 60 ton rock slab fell creating 180 tons of new rocks on the ground. I don't have a picture of the Arch..

ī,

I have left my foot here as a reference. This is an oak tree that is 40 years old. Small due to lack of water.

You can see here the layer cake affect ..water, sand, water, sand...

This arch  is 23 feet high.

Balanced Rkō,, ock..only 3500 tons of stone.

Rogers holding up Balanced Rocks..

If you look at the people, it should give you a reference as to the size of these rocks.

Our guide told us that 1/2 million bikers come every year to go on the 68 trails that weave through the sand dunes.

If you can't read this, the arch is 35 feet high and 33 feet wide.

I had to take this on a zoom lens. There is a big drop off between me and the arch so it is impossible to hike from my position. I am so disappointed by the rain because the colors of these rocks are magnificient.  The oranges and reds are unbelievable. I am disappointed because I have seen the beauty of these and David and the kids are not experiencing the magnificent colors that I am aware of.

Rain drops on the windshield..This is where Indiana Jones was filmed. Called the Cove of Caves.

 There are about 2,000 arches including the Delicate Arch.  The Park encompasses 76,679 acres.

 There have been 43 arches that have collapsed since 1971.  It started to rain again..

We stopped to have lunch in Moab and the kids thought this was funny. I told them that Grampa could make them one when we got back to Joe's pond.  We had them as kids.  For those that are too young, you put an elastic on the clip first and then on the barrel end.  Ready, Aim, Shoot.....

On our night tour our tour guide would point out all kinds of faces formed in the rocks.  We got to hear some of the same stories because our guide was the same one we had during the day...

ET go home......

The eye of an alligator.

Then as it got dark the lights from a truck on the road across the river would shine on the rocks and the guide would tell stories. Fun.  The locals know not to drive down that part of the road at that time of night because of the blinding thousands of watts that it took to illuminate the  rocks.

Salt here has potassium rather than sodium....so I am told....

We leave here to travel onto Canyonlands

See you there....

Across the county day 10- Unita-Wasatch National Forests and Spanish Fork Canyon

Day 10 Moab UT.
As we leave Salt Lake we cross Red Canyon and climb to Soldier Summit which is now a ghost town. They plowed down all the houses. Weird.

 We see lots of windmills

We are traveling through the Unita-Wasatch National Forests and Spanish Fork Canyon

 The color here in the middle of the rock formation fascinated me.

This area has the greatest concentrations of National Parks

We cross the Green River

 We are staying in the Red Cliffs Lodge and I would love to come back here again.  There are horses running in the fields that we could ride.

 We have a great place to stay. We have this little bungalow and the kids have one next door. We have two bedrooms in each.  Perfect!  We are staying in the Red Cliffs Lodge and I would love to come back here again.  There are horses running in the fields that we could ride.

We are able to choose from lots of activities but the rain came and didn't help in that department.  They get 10 inches of rain a year here but we got measured at getting 2 inches!  When the rain came it looked like snow it was coming so fast and hard.
We are here another night and tomorrow we are off the the Arches National Park
See you there....

Across the country-Day 9 off to Salt Lake

Day 9

We are off to Salt Lake City  going through the Teton Bridger Wilderness and following the Snake River.  The river is about 1783 miles that will travel to the Columbia which goes all the way to the Pacific.  On the Snake River, hydro power was  started  in 1890.  In the particular area we are traveling through there is apt to be 600 inches of snow.  (And we complain when we get a foot!).

Going through Freedom.The Town is in both states of Wyoming and Utah.  Started by Mormons and where they were able to escape polygamy charges because they could walk to the other side of town. It is also known for its Freedom Rifle factory.

Facts about Wyoming..528,000 population 96,000 square miles. It has lots of dinosaur fossils  It became a a state in 1890 and was the 44th state. The Indians came west in the 1600s. Fun facts:  It is illegal to take a picture of a rabbit - J C Penny stores started here. It is illegal to wear a hat that obstructs a person's view in a public place.


On to Utah which is 84,000 sq miles, we are traveling the Logan trail Byway. We stop at Bear Lake which is 18 x7 miles

 We passed into the town of Afton WY where they had an arch that crossed 4 lanes of traffic on US 89. There are 3,011 antlers that weigh 15 tons. Here is our first stop and it is a chocolate store.  The kids were delighted and couldn't wait to get off the bus!

 We are now on the OREGON TRAIL- presented by the National Oregon/ California Trail center in  Bear lake valley, Idaho. This is a wonderful exhibit. We start by having lunch in our covered wagon.

In 1860 the covered wagons moved West where one out of every 6 died  traveling 10 to 15 miles a day for 6 months. . They counted the miles by tying a rag on the wheel and a young lad had to count the times it went around on the wheel: 404 revolutions equals a mile.  In later years the road meter was invented and cost $5.   It was usually put on the last wagon that typically belonged to the blacksmith.

The wagons [prairie schooners] were made by Studebaker called the Pierce Schooner.  The factory produced one every 7 minutes. They also didn't allow for a rider so everyone had to walk. A man named Stewart had discovered the best route to go through the  mountains called South Pass which was about 12 miles wide; but no one gave him credit for about 30 years.
Before we leave Idaho, a fun fact is the Sears used to sell the houses here and bring them in on the trains with everything included in the kit down to the screws that would be needed!

In this interactive museum we are living in the 1800's; we have decided to go west. We need to sell our farm and take the money to buy the things we need from the store here.  It will cost about $1200  total and it cost $100 for my wagon.  I will need 200 pounds of flour, 10 lbs of coffee, 10 lbs of salt, 40 lbs of bacon. These are just a few things I need. A family of 4 takes about 1000 lbs of food.  That didn't leave much room for furniture or other items.  Our guide told us that the Easterners tended to take too much and had to dump a lot on the way but the westerners understood about taking little.  The pioneers did discover that quilts were great things to keep as they were used to keep warm, trade with the Indians for things they needed, and they buried their loved ones in the quilt that was theirs.

The ride in the wagon was a little rough.  We had a wagon that allowed me to ride after I had cut my foot pretty badly on the rocks.  I had been given a white handkerchief in the beginning of our trip.  At the end of the trail the handkerchief meant I had died.  I guess my foot never healed :-(

We are getting ready to leave.  Before boarding our motor-coach we admire the beauty around us. 

The kids relaxing for a few.

When Joseph Smith came to the place where the church was built he had great aspirations. The church is 127 feet long  X 73 feet wide by 110 feet tall. It cost back then $50,000 and was finished in 1889.  There were 500 members and it held 2000.

Below is the interior where the famous Tabernacle Choir sings.  It is open to the public; but the temple above is only open to confirmed members of the church.  We were able to see a model of the interior in the museum.

We spent the night at Double Tree after we walked around the Mormon Visitor Center.  Today 60% of Salt Lake City is comprised of Mormons.

I still haven't learned anything more about the church and its members than I knew coming into it.

Along this part of the Pioneer trail, the Bear River Massacre occurred which is the known for the largest single massacre of Native Americans by the US troops. 380 out of 450 Shoshone were killed on Jan 29,1863.
Salt Lake is a terminal lake which is 1700 sq miles and changes as the water evaporates,- 950 sq miles in 1963 and 3300 sq miles in 1988. This is the largest lake not part of the Great Lakes and higher salt content than the ocean. It is the capital of Utah  which became a State in 1896. Utah is the home of 11 ski resorts.

We are off to an amazing part of the country.  Wait till you see the views tomorrow.
See you then.....