Sights and Smells(!) of Salt Lake City

We reluctantly left the lovely weather in West Yellowstone, and headed for Salt Lake City.  The temperatures were certainly more summer-like, and we used our air conditioners a lot.  The park where we stayed is very nice from an infrastructure standpoint.

Unfortunately, what you can't see in the picture is the air quality around the park.  Just across the highway is a number of refineries and just behind them a mining operation.

In the mornings when it was cool enough to turn the a/c off and open the windows, we were 'treated' to a mixture of chemical smells.  And to add another sensory experience, an outdoor motocross course is just a few hundred yards down the road from the park.  Enthusiasts were out bright and early to roar over and over and over the course.  Thank goodness for the heat, so we had to run our air conditioners most of the time. :)

We visited the capitol building there.  It is huge!

It sits atop a hill with views all around it.

The inside is just as impressive with its marble, gold leaf, and paintings.

Temple Square is the heart of the city.  In fact, streets are named in reference to their position from the Square.  Such as, one street south of the Square is named '100 South', three streets west of the Square is named '300 West', etc.  Visiting the Square, we were able to see the cathedral from the outside only.

The doors were all locked, not allowing visitors in.  We were surprised to find a church with locked doors, especially one that obviously wants tourists to visit.  All around the cathedral, wedding parties and their guests were happily taking pictures, apparently just having exchanged vows.  We counted no less than 7 different parties around the cathedral's very pretty grounds.

We were able to get into the Tabernacle.  Its outside appearance is so very different from the cathedral, domed for acoustics we're sure.  Unfortunately, neither the choir nor the organ was practicing there that day.

When researching things to do in Salt Lake City, we saw many reviews regarding visiting the Great Salt Lake itself.  There were many references to horrible smells, dead sea gulls, and voracious bugs.  SheM was not really sure she was up for it, but HeM insisted.  As it turned out, it was not that bad.  We drove to Antelope Island, a state park on the largest island in the lake.  As we approached the lake, we were impressed by its calm, which presented nice reflections as in this picture.

And the birds!  Many, many birds feast on the brine shrimp in the lake.  The day we were there, an exhibit was set up to examine the annual spider population explosion.  We didn't participate.  We did walk down to the water's edge and put our hands in the lake.  HeM did a salinity taste-test but that's as far as we went, even though several folks had waded out waist deep.

Even though it wasn't as bad as SheM feared, it still was rather smelly, and there were a lot of bugs around the edge. We're glad we went, and don't really need to do it again.

We took the drive up to Park City, and walked up and down Historic Main street.

It's the usual tourist mecca with lots of shops, restaurants, and bars.  We would need to stay here at least a month in order to sample all the food and drink opportunities.  In our travels, we've found a Harley Davidson establishment in just about every city.  They are usually large, with a sizable parking lot.  Park City's Harley Davidson is in a class of its own.

We'd like to see what this area looks like in the winter.  We wouldn't likely ski, but we could certainly enjoy ourselves sipping refreshments around warm fireplaces.  We took a ride up one of the chair lifts.

As we were being carried along toward the top, a black rain cloud floated over and drenched us.  In fact, when we arrived at the top we were told that they were going to shut the ride down because of lightning strikes.  We would be transported back down via a van--us and about 15 other people.  That didn't sound like fun, and fortunately, that didn't happen.  After about 20 minutes, the operators were given the 'all clear' and started the ride again.  We were able to ride the chair lift down, and the view was much better than on the way up.

We're glad that we came to see Salt Lake City, even with less-than-pleasant smells.  We'll continue going south from here, heading toward Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.

Yellowstone--A World Treasure

We drove to West Yellowstone, staying in the Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park there.  Our favorite young family from Austin met us there, and we had a great week exploring Yellowstone with them.  Yellowstone has been our favorite national park so far.  And we're not alone in our appreciation for the marvels it offers.  We noticed many international visitors mixed in the crowds everywhere we went.  We believe that the American people can take pride in the fact that we've preserved such a treasure that is enjoyed by people all over the world.

It's very hard to choose which pictures to post.  The number and variety of gorgeous sights just go on and on.  We'll just post an overview montage of the dozens of pictures we have.

Of course we made a point of catching Old Faithful.  Just for the record, it was 20 minutes late in erupting...just saying.

We saw a number of animals.  Lots and lots of bison, a few pronghorn deer, some elk (too far in the distance to get a decent picture), and an eagle's nest with 3 babies.  A park ranger had set up a long-range telescope focused on the nest and invited visitors to look through it.

We were hoping to catch a glimpse of a bear and some wolves in the wild, but we had no luck.  There is a discovery center in West Yellowstone that houses some bears and wolves, so we had to settle for viewing them there.

We took an overnight trip to Jackson, Wyoming, driving through the Grand Teton National Park.  The mountains are impressive, but they can't compare to Yellowstone with the 'oh my' factor.

Jackson, Wyoming is a charming small town.

We stayed in a lovely hotel and enjoyed a delicious evening meal.  The next morning we returned to West Yellowstone to prepare Roamin for our next move.  We've decided to head down the western side of the Rockies as we slowly make our way back toward Texas.  Salt Lake City is our next stop.

Mining Monuments in Southwest Montana

[Blogger's Note:  This posting is late due to poor internet access.]

From Glacier National Park, we began our gradual move southward.  We stopped near Butte, outside the small town of Anaconda.  This area was a rich, thriving area in the 1800's owing its prosperity to intense mining.  Anaconda came very close to being the capital of Montana, but the Copper King pushing for its selection led an unsuccessful campaign against another Copper King pushing for Helena.  When the mining gave out, Anaconda was left with little but an EPA super site cleanup headache.  For miles as we approached Anaconda, we saw a tall tower in the hills and kept wondering what it was.  We could see it out the front window of Roamin while in the RV park.

When we drove to see what it was, we found a 585' tall masonry smokestack along with a huge, huge pile of ugly black slag.  We asked a local what it was.  The answer--Anaconda was the site of a major copper smelting operation, and the smokestack and black slag is all that's left.

Cleanup is underway, but it will take a while.  The evidence of human greed without concern for the outcome is sobering and depressing.  Speaking of depressing, the RV park we called home for a week was quite a letdown after the nice resort we had just come from.

Despite its rustic amenities, it's a very popular park--'pickings are slim' in the area.  Since they're not hurting for business, they have little motivation for improvements apparently.

We visited Butte, wondering how it has fared post-mining boom.  It is doing much better than Anaconda.  Its leaders are making a concerted effort to make it a destination spot.  They were preparing for Evel Knievel Days when we were there.  It was advertised to "include chills, thrills, and three evenings of live music."  Tracy Lawrence was slated for the free concert on the last night of the event.

There is little doubt about its mining background though.

There are former mining headframes all over town that look just like this.

And there are old buildings giving evidence to its prosperous past.  Some of them have found new lives.  Unfortunately, most of these old buildings have fallen into disrepair.

We drove over the Continental Divide to Helena, and visited the capitol there.

The architecture inside is really pretty.

There is a cafeteria in its basement, and it was lunchtime so we tried it.  We were pleasantly surprised at how good it was.  (We had sampled the capitol cafeteria fare in Lincoln, Nebraska when we were there last year--we wouldn't recommend it.)

Driving around Helena, we again found quite a few empty buildings, evidencing prior better days.  Some of them are still in pretty good shape.  One building that we found quite impressive in size and grandeur was the Cathedral of St. Helena.

At the end of the day, we drove back over the Continental Divide, back to Roamin in Anaconda.  We began preparing for our next stop--Yellowstone National Park.  We anticipate a really fun week ahead.