Salina
August 4, 2017 was moving day to Salina. This was a three night stop to break up the trip to southern Utah.


The Guard Tower is in front of a memorial to the German POW's who were killed here by a US solider who went a little crazy. The Coke Cans used to be Pepsi until the Wendy's they sit outside of changed to Coke products. The Truck on a pole is outside of an auto repair shop.
Freemont Indian State Park is filled with artifacts, petroglyphs and pictorgraphs left behind by the Fremont Indians. This rare piece of history was discovered while current progress was being made. During construction of I-70 the largest known Freemont Indian Village was stumbled upon.
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Museum Trail Top L-R: Warrior and Deer Bottom L-R: Creation story and Carrot Men |
There are a number of trails from short paved ones that are handicap accessible to long strenuous ones. You drive from spot to spot, park and then hike. They offer information sheets on each location at the Visitor Center. We enjoyed the Museum Trail (the paved one) and then took a moderate hike to the Cave of 100 Hands, which takes you under the expressway and along side the river.

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Surveying the area |

Long Valley Junction
On August 7, 2017 we headed south on Hwy 89 to Long Valley Junction. Don't look for it on a map! There really is nothing here except a gas station, the camp ground and a road maintenance yard.
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Crazy road |


WiFi is very weak unless you are by the office. We paid $17.10 a night with a combination of a Passport America discount and weekly rate. Mule Deer visited every morning and night.
Once again there is so much to see and do here it was a very busy week. This location put us half way between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, plus much more.
Bryce Canyon National Park was first on the to-do list. There is only one trail that you can take a dog on which we had planned to do but discovered that we could see so much from all of the overlooks that we chose to go that route instead. Nancy was fighting a summer cold so hiking really wasn't what she wanted to do anyways!



The Natural Bridge was our favorite.
There was a high-rise and a bobble head at the Agua Canyon Overlook.
The view from Ponderosa Point was filled with pine trees - one can only guess that they may be Ponderosa's! We watched the birds fly over Black Birch Canyon.
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L: Ponderosa Point ~~~~ C & R: Black Birch Canyon |


While waiting for people to cross the road we saw this girl engrossed in her book and she tugged at our heartstrings as she reminded us of Katrina.




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Top L-R: The opening at the top looked like a bird ~ Keeping dry Bottom L-R: Our view and our climb |
Not only were we treated to wonderful rock formations but the trees that have fallen where so beautiful.


The scenic drive through the park is only six miles long but don't let the short length fool you.

While the Grand Canyon North Rim wasn't exactly close by, the 2 hour drive was so worth it. We visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon in November 2016, but seeing it is 200+ miles to the North Rim we didn't go. This time it was just over 100 miles and an easy straight shot down Highway 89.
The road ends at the North Rim Lodge, which has a Visitor Center that is surrounded by cabins. If you ever go there you need to stay in cabin 306 - it has the best view.

Nancy walked out to the end of Bright Angel Point, leaving Les and Mielikki resting in the shade. The path is paved all the way but very steep in some places and pretty narrow in others.

We then drove out to Cape Royal and caught a balancing rock in the rear view mirror.

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Colorado River ~~~~~ Angels Window |
A stop at the Angels Window Overlook gave us a peak at the Colorado River. There are actually people standing on top of the window rock. This view made our picnic dinner even more special.

Zion National Park has stolen our hearts and has become our favorite so far.

There are two tunnels carved through the mountains. The first one is short and wide enough for all traffic.
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Top - going into the park Bottom - heading out of the park |
The second one, completed in 1930 is 1.1 miles long. When this one was built they were not anticipating today's large buses and RV's. To drive one of these through you have to pay an escort fee of $15 and approaching traffic is stopped as you have to drive straight down the center in order to not hit the walls. We watched a bus enter the tunnel and it was a tight squeeze. As you exit the 2nd tunnel the road starts its descent into the valley. There are openings through out the tunnel - we assume to let in air and light. Nancy got a few pics while driving past them.

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L: View from front seat of trailer T-R: view from ceiling vents |
We suggest that you get a forward facing seat if possible so you can see a little better, or the first row of the trailer car. Some of our trip was spent standing in the center row hanging onto the overhead straps. All the shuttles are handicap accessible.
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The Narrows |
There you can hike out to the Narrows, which is what we did. This is where the river cuts through the mountains and to continue the hike you have to wade through the river. We did not do this. The path out to the Narrows is paved but covered in sand in places. Wheelchairs and strollers are allowed but it is a little steep in places.


There are plenty of places to stop and rest, which Nancy appreciated as she was still struggling with her stupid summer cold and the altitude wasn't helping much. We will definitely be coming back to this park to explore more one day.
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The Giant White Throne |
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The place was filled with 100's of model cars |
We learned about it on the Roadside Oddities website and the name gave us such a chuckle we had to stop. The pie was delicious. Their catch phrase was created after WWII when lumber was hard to come by. They didn't have enough wood to write out the whole word "Homemade" so they shortened it. Of course this was long before the word Ho took on the meaning it has today. When times changed they decided to embrace their slogan and it seems to be working just fine for them.
Besides the Ho-Made Pies we found a few other Oddities.
The Rock Shop in Orderville is trying very hard to look like a rock. This Totem Pole sits on private property along side a building built into a cave. The Rodeo Horse and Large Shopping Cart are in Kanab. The Landlock Lighthouse stands guard over Cedar City.

Nephi
August 14, 2017 found us moving to Nephi. With "move-in" weekend at Brigham University and the Solar Eclipse we had a hard time finding a place to stay by Salt Lake City.
We stayed at Jones High Country RV Park. Your basic park, all gravel with very narrow sites. We were in Site 12 with full hook-ups and luckily no one was next to us. WiFi was weak, Verizon signal strong. We paid $30.00 a night with our Good Sam discount. We never once spoke to or saw the owners, everything was done via voicemail and a drop box on the office door.

Others that we found were replicas of Mount Rushmore and Stonehenge along with a Krishna Temple.

While the Mormon Temple isn't really a roadside we did get a picture of it. It stands in the center of Temple Square.

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Top: Young Living ~~~ Bottom: doTERRA |
We made a stop at two Essential Oil companies. doTERRA is just outside of Salt Lake. Our friend Connie sells these oils. Young Living has a number of locations. We stopped at the Lavender Farm in Mona. Our friend Jan sells these oils. Both have beautiful grounds

A little nature is always on the agenda for us. Bridal Veil Falls in the Provo Canyon were so pretty and an easy walk to get to on a paved path. Mielikki is getting braver every time, she actually got into the water this time.

Up next is Idaho, Oregon and Washington as we work our way to our Alaskan cruise!
Till we meet again...
Happy Trails to You!
Tips and things we have learned along the way.
~ Pace yourself
Okay as you all know we never really follow this advice, which of course is why this blog post is so ridiculously long. When there is so much to do and we want to share all of it with you this is what happens. So, thank you for your patience and putting up with us rambling on and thanks for following along and encouraging us to keep moving.
Wow all places are just amazing, especially those horsetail and ponytail falls. By road I visited so many places with my family and I enjoy road trip always rather than by plane. Through your blog i just got ideas for traveling that where should i spend my upcoming holidays with my family. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI am glad our blog has given you some ideas of where to visit - there is an endless supply of places in this beautiful country!
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