NW Colorado, Utah and Idaho
Nothing too exciting happened between The Great Sand Dunes National Monument (now National Park) and Yellowstone, but since you’re along for the ride and you can’t just jump from one place to the next, I’ll include some of my travel journal entries and pictures.
Mon. 3 Sept. –…We headed north! to the ghost town of St. Elmo. Dad said left at a country road just south of Nathrop. We hiked some. I saw something white on the mt. that moved. Goat? Sheep? In Nathrop we bought a disposable camera.
Faux ghost town and little shops in Fairplay, where I bought bath fizzies. On to Breckenridge where we stopped at a market and bought lunch and replenished snacks.
Through Frisco and on to Georgetown where we took a train on the Georgetown Loop. Not much to see beyond what we can see from the road.
[Tue 4 Sept] – We took ‘Oh My God’ Road to Idaho Springs—quite a harrowing drive with the straight drop offs—towards Denver in hopes of finding a place to repair my camera, … The camera guy at Super Kmart didn’t know of any place [where I could take my camera]. Instead of buying 3 more disposables, we bought a manual with 55mm zoom.
Drove to Coors Field and watched Dodgers take batting practice [before the game].
Thursday 6 Sept – [But this is what we did Sept 5] – To Leadville. We did the Leadville Historical Building tour. 15 places including a Catholic church, Tabors Opera House (restored). Saloon, other hotel, drug store. Onward West to Glenwood Springs to Vapor Caves. So hot. Estimate 120+ degrees. For 15 min. we sweated. Entrance was thru a spa. We showered and headed N to Dinosaur.
[The scenery and the late afternoon sky made this the most beautiful drive I remember ever taking. My album has 12 pictures of the sky. I used half a roll of film for sky! The rest of the disposable camera’s shots.]
We drove in the CO entrance [of Dinosaur National Park] to Echo Park Overlook and saw deer. Sky was beautiful.
[What we did the 6th] Near Salt Lake City we stopped at Timpanogos Cave Nat’l Mon. Hiked to entrance 1.5 mi – 1065’ rise – in 40 min. I about killed myself [meaning the hike was pretty strenuous]. 3 caves toured in ~45 min. [We were the only two on that particular tour, the second-to-last one of the day. The caves were breathtaking. I was expecting something like Mammoth Cave—just smooth brown walls, a stalactite here, a stalagmite there. But walking in Timpanogos was like entering a fairy-tale castle or a snow globe with glitter instead of snow. Every surface was crystally and sparkly. I took pictures, but see Fri 7 Sept. entry for our next camera disaster.]
SLC [Salt Lake City] – Temple Sq., Church of Latter Day Sts has many bldgs there. Tabernacle is Domed. Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing. The place was beautiful and the city so clean. We saw a statue dedicated to the Mormons who came from Iowa in 1850 pulling carts of their belongings themselves because they couldn’t afford oxen. A statue dedicated to seagulls. [explanation:] Once in SLC [the people] planted crops and were near starvation when crickets were destroying crops. [But in swooped the seagulls to eat the crickets, and all ended well. Thus, the statue.]
Fri 7 Sept – North to Antelope Island [and the Great Salt Lake]. We saw lots of buffalo and one deer and birds. N to Id. to Hagerman fossil beds Nat’l Mon. [At the time, it was the newest National Monument. Very small. Not worth the trip.] Then we headed for Craters of the Moon NP. … So we get to Craters of the Moon – just 20 min. after Visitors’ Center closed. We drove the 7 mi. loop and got out and hiked 3 trails. The first was straight up a hill. I got up with my camera ahead of Mark and took a picture of a little green chicken-like plant growing out of the lava bed (plants and animals can survive on lava beds due to adaptation.) It was my last picture. Mark got up and asked if I wanted him to rewind it. I handed it over and he turned and turned. He opened it and it wasn’t rewound. He closed and turned and turned again. Not rewound. He did it again and nada. He said we ought to have read the directions. He stripped the rewind reel. [So we’re without a camera again].
Sat 8 Sept. – We stopped at Wal-mart this morning [in Idaho Falls, ID] and bought a camera and food [and a fleece jacket for me. We drove all around the small town of Idaho Falls looking for the magnificent falls after which the town was named. On that lovely Saturday morning in the center of the bustling town, we finally asked someone where the falls were.
He pointed to his left and said, “Right there.” We thought it was awfully small to have a whole big, bustling town (for Idaho) named in its honor.]
Mon. 3 Sept. –…We headed north! to the ghost town of St. Elmo. Dad said left at a country road just south of Nathrop. We hiked some. I saw something white on the mt. that moved. Goat? Sheep? In Nathrop we bought a disposable camera.
Faux ghost town and little shops in Fairplay, where I bought bath fizzies. On to Breckenridge where we stopped at a market and bought lunch and replenished snacks.
Through Frisco and on to Georgetown where we took a train on the Georgetown Loop. Not much to see beyond what we can see from the road.
[Tue 4 Sept] – We took ‘Oh My God’ Road to Idaho Springs—quite a harrowing drive with the straight drop offs—towards Denver in hopes of finding a place to repair my camera, … The camera guy at Super Kmart didn’t know of any place [where I could take my camera]. Instead of buying 3 more disposables, we bought a manual with 55mm zoom.
Drove to Coors Field and watched Dodgers take batting practice [before the game].
Thursday 6 Sept – [But this is what we did Sept 5] – To Leadville. We did the Leadville Historical Building tour. 15 places including a Catholic church, Tabors Opera House (restored). Saloon, other hotel, drug store. Onward West to Glenwood Springs to Vapor Caves. So hot. Estimate 120+ degrees. For 15 min. we sweated. Entrance was thru a spa. We showered and headed N to Dinosaur.
[The scenery and the late afternoon sky made this the most beautiful drive I remember ever taking. My album has 12 pictures of the sky. I used half a roll of film for sky! The rest of the disposable camera’s shots.]
We drove in the CO entrance [of Dinosaur National Park] to Echo Park Overlook and saw deer. Sky was beautiful.
[What we did the 6th] Near Salt Lake City we stopped at Timpanogos Cave Nat’l Mon. Hiked to entrance 1.5 mi – 1065’ rise – in 40 min. I about killed myself [meaning the hike was pretty strenuous]. 3 caves toured in ~45 min. [We were the only two on that particular tour, the second-to-last one of the day. The caves were breathtaking. I was expecting something like Mammoth Cave—just smooth brown walls, a stalactite here, a stalagmite there. But walking in Timpanogos was like entering a fairy-tale castle or a snow globe with glitter instead of snow. Every surface was crystally and sparkly. I took pictures, but see Fri 7 Sept. entry for our next camera disaster.]
SLC [Salt Lake City] – Temple Sq., Church of Latter Day Sts has many bldgs there. Tabernacle is Domed. Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing. The place was beautiful and the city so clean. We saw a statue dedicated to the Mormons who came from Iowa in 1850 pulling carts of their belongings themselves because they couldn’t afford oxen. A statue dedicated to seagulls. [explanation:] Once in SLC [the people] planted crops and were near starvation when crickets were destroying crops. [But in swooped the seagulls to eat the crickets, and all ended well. Thus, the statue.]
Fri 7 Sept – North to Antelope Island [and the Great Salt Lake]. We saw lots of buffalo and one deer and birds. N to Id. to Hagerman fossil beds Nat’l Mon. [At the time, it was the newest National Monument. Very small. Not worth the trip.] Then we headed for Craters of the Moon NP. … So we get to Craters of the Moon – just 20 min. after Visitors’ Center closed. We drove the 7 mi. loop and got out and hiked 3 trails. The first was straight up a hill. I got up with my camera ahead of Mark and took a picture of a little green chicken-like plant growing out of the lava bed (plants and animals can survive on lava beds due to adaptation.) It was my last picture. Mark got up and asked if I wanted him to rewind it. I handed it over and he turned and turned. He opened it and it wasn’t rewound. He closed and turned and turned again. Not rewound. He did it again and nada. He said we ought to have read the directions. He stripped the rewind reel. [So we’re without a camera again].
Sat 8 Sept. – We stopped at Wal-mart this morning [in Idaho Falls, ID] and bought a camera and food [and a fleece jacket for me. We drove all around the small town of Idaho Falls looking for the magnificent falls after which the town was named. On that lovely Saturday morning in the center of the bustling town, we finally asked someone where the falls were.
He pointed to his left and said, “Right there.” We thought it was awfully small to have a whole big, bustling town (for Idaho) named in its honor.]
posted by Elizabeth Evans Fryer at 3:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home