Salt Lake City, Parting Thoughts
August 22, 2005 | 2 Comments
This story is a bit delayed, but I felt I still needed to get it published. This is my final story in the series related to my trip to Utah. I just wanted to get the rest of my images posted and talk briefly about some of the other cool things we saw.
We took a drive through Mt. Timponogos area which is a fantastic scenic drive including some snow topped mountains which were Sara’s favorites of course. On the way out of the mountains are a series of waterfalls including Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. Highly recommended scenic drive.
Sara also went to the Salt Lake City Public Library. The library is impressively large. She also too of the best shots we have of the city from the public roof observation area.
One night we took a ride out to Park City where many of the 2002 Olympic Games were held. I wasn’t super impressed with Park City though. It is an expensive area with an over abundance of of art galleries and the like. If you like that type of thing, it is the place for you, but not entirely my cup of tea. What we did see while there that was cool was them filming a scene for Everwood. The best part was standing in a crowd waiting to see “the star.” Clearly, the crowd didn’t know who they were waiting for as Treat Williams walked off the set and quietly up the sidewalk without a single person in the surrounding crowd even noticing. It was then that Sara and I also left, following towards our car and watched him enter his trailer. Hugely funny.
On our last day there we visited the Family History Library which is the home to a huge collection of genealogical information. I turned up a book on the Tirrell family there which was awesome. I intend on blogging that later, so more on this all later. If you visit Salt Lake though, I recommend a few hours here, but do as much of your family tree ahead of tie as you can. A majority of there best data is pre-1900.
As a final point of note, I’ll say that Salt Lake is a very clean and cultured city. I found more entertaining things to see in the area than I had imagined. The Mormons have had a positive effect on the community without being as overbearing as I thought they might be. You can still get beer in most restaurants and that’s all that matters to me.
Although, on that note, local Utah beers are overall a bit bland and not very interesting. I tried four different ones, some at micro breweries and was impressed with none of them. Including an oatmeal stout which is usually exactly what I’m looking for…
Tags: 2002 olympic games, beer, everwood, family history library, micro breweries, park city, salt lake city, scenic drive, timponogos, treat williams, Utah
North American Museum of Ancient Life and Aliens of the Deep
August 15, 2005 | 4 Comments
After Bingham Copper Mine, we headed south down to the North American Museum of Ancient Life at Thangsgiving Point. This museum has one of the largest collections of ancient life specimens. My favorites included: the archelon turtle, battling t-rexes, a supersaurus, a stegasaurus, a pair of pachycephalosaurus, a giant ground sloth, a wooly mammoth, and my gallery of the various dinos and other ancient life.
A surprising highlight of the museum was seeing Aliens of the Deep 3D on their Xango Mammoth Screen. This James Cameron film that follows a young team of marine biologists, NASA researchers, and Cameron himself on a very deep sea research voyage. NASA’s involvement was based on the similarity in searching for life in deep sea and deep space. Specifically, they hope to eventually be doing a similar expedition to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Amazingly they have been successful at finding life near the hydro-thermal vents on the ocean floor. A place devoid of life with insane extremes of cold, hot, and pressures. Many of these creatures thrive chemosynthtically, by using chemicals rather than light or organic food matter to gain energy. Very fascinating.
Tags: aliens of the deep, ancient life, archelon turtle, chemosynthetic, deep sea exploration, dinosaur, dinosaurs, europa, fossils, giant sloth, james cameron, jupiter, pachycephalosaurus, space exploration, stegasaurus, supersaurus, t-rex, thanksgiving point, tyrannosaurus, Utah, utahraptor, wooly mammoth
Truck Explodes on Highway in Utah
August 12, 2005 | 2 Comments
All over the news out here in Utah is this truck that overturned on Highway 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon. Apparently the truck was carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives called cast boosters that are used in mine exploration. The driver was going too fast, he lost control and the truck tipped over and skidded across the highway. The driver managed to get out of his truck, but by this time a crowd had started to form. He told them all to get back and managed to get most people away from the truck when it finally detonated.
The truck left a 30 foot deep and 70 foot wide hole in the highway. The truck flew 100 feet up the rock cliff andremains slid back down. Sharpnel was thrown up into the surrounding forest starting fires. The force of the blast was so intense it blew the windows out of cars in the area. Amazingly there were no deaths and injuries were limited to only ten or so. All the was left of the truck was the engine block and a mangled axl.
I wish they hadn’t closed the road, I wanted to drive up and see the destruction.
Other News about it:
Dallas News: Explosives-laden truck rolls, explodes in Utah
deseretnews.com: Blast closes canyon
Denver Post: Utah highway “gone” after explosion
Salt Lake Tribune: A canyone inferno
Tags: accident, explosion, explosives, highway, truck explodes, Utah
Bingham Canyon Copper Mine
August 11, 2005 | 6 Comments
Our first destination for Monday morning was Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. This open faced mine is the largest man-made excavation on earth, stretching two-and-a-half miles wide and 3,960 feet deep. What was a mountain has been mined away to form this huge pit. The pit continues to grow with 500,000 tons of material being hauled out each day. Engineers estimate the hole will continue to grow another 650 feet deeper, at which point it will not be financially viable to continue mining. The estimated year this will occur is 2015. After great modernization in the early 1990’s they employed 2,400 people, produced 300,000 tons of copper annually, and claimed to run the most modern and clean copper mine and smelting facility in the world. One of their claims to fame is that they are one of two man made structures easily visible from space (The Great Wall being the other). Not a claim I would necessarily be proud of, but… this is basically like saying hey look we made the biggest scar. I will say that Kennecott seems to be trying very hard to be an ecologically sound company, and they seem to be working to clean up old mines all over the state.
Check out the full gallery of our trip to the mine.
Tags: copper, copper mine, excavation, Kennecott, mine, mining, pit, Utah
Into the Mountains, A Visit to Snowbasin
August 9, 2005 | 1 Comment
After Antelope Island we drove up into Ogden and through Ogden Canyon. This was our first drive up into the mountains. We followed the road up and up past Pineview Reservoir. Our destination: Snowbasin.
Snowbasin was used for downhill ski racing in the 2002 Olympics. Check out the shots we took of the amazing lodge in the gallery.
Tags: 2002 olympics, canyon, ogden, ogden canyon, olympics, scenery, skiing, snobasin, Utah
Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake
August 9, 2005 | 1 Comment
Most guide books will tell you that Antelope Island is the best place to experience all that is The Great Salt Lake. As you pass across the 7 mile causeway leading to the island from the town of Ogden, you can listen in on an AM station to hear some facts about the lake.
First and foremost, why is this an inland salt lake? That answer is simple, there are no rivers or out lets leaving the lake. Rivers run in, but none leave, the only water that leaves the lake is through evaporation. This then leaves great quantities of salt behind. One section of the lake reaches 25% salt levels. What this leas you to realize is that the lake has been divided into sections allowing such a thing to occur. To the north of the lake, a railway causeway cuts off a large northern section of the lake, Gunnison Bay which is the saltiest part. The causeway going out to Antelope Island provides another separation, Farmington Bay to the south and Gilbert Bay to the north. Interestingly the wildlife seems to prefer one side or the other at varying times. When we drove out almost all the plentiful numbers of birds were in Gilbert Bay. On the way out they had switched to the south.
There were two types of birds we noticed here. First were a group stilt legged birds, the others were the truly entertaining ones. There were all of these little birds who seemed to enjoy spinning in circles. Check out the video (3.7MB MOV), they are awesome.
Stopping at the visitor’s center we learned the most fascinating fact. The Great Salt Lake is actually the remnant of an ancient, larger lake, Lake Bonneville. This monstrous lake was 325 miles long, 135 miles wide, had a maximum depth of 1,000 feet, and covered 20,000 square miles of western Utah and portions of both Nevada and Idaho. Of course this was over 14 thousand years ago…
After leaving the visitor’s center we went down to the beach. The beach is very long, in other word, you have to walk a ways to get out to the water. Initially we encountered really soft sand which encouraged us to leave our shoes in the car. This was a mistake. After getting a little ways out the sand becomes hard and sharp. So hard that bare feet don’t even leave impressions. We weren’t sure we’d make it without causing significant damage to our feet, but we pushed on regardless. The actual edge of the water is a bit disturbing with lines of dead brine flies on the beach and swarms of them in the water. Additionally after wading into the lake you notice the hundred of brine shrimp (or Sea Monkeys) that swim all around. Anyway, we didn’t stay in the water long, just long enough to draw up the courage for the trek back across the beach. My suggestion to visitors, wear shoes!
Next we sought out after the buffalo herd. Buffalo aren’t native to Antelope Island but rather were imported as an original group of 12 and have since spawned to a herd of 600. In fact, the last “great” buffalo hunt occurred here. The herd was up to about 400 in 1926 when a buffalo hunt was organized as an invitational event. At this event nearly all of the herd were killed off. Luckily a few survived and the herd was able to rebuild itself again. Each year all the buffalo are rounded up on the island, tagged, and counted.
One of the advertised highlights of Antelope Island is Fielding Garr Ranch. Built by Garr in 1848 it was intended as a stronghold for managing the Mormon cattle herds. These herds and the ranch supported the Mormon “Perpetual Emigration Fund” assisting in helping Mormons move out to the area across the Great Plains. In the 1870s the ranch was sold to John Dooly who introduced the original 12 Bison. Most likely Dooly was hoping to raise these rare species for commercial hunting opportunity. In 1981 ownership transferred to the state and the ranch became a state park. The age of the ranch is repeatedly enforced, but as an east coaster, this just isn’t a major selling point. Instead I enjoyed the stories of why this ranch is there and the random items around the ranch.
If you visit the Salt Lake area, I highly recommend Antelope Island. Check out the complete gallery.
Tags: antelope island, beach, bison, brine flies, brine shrimp, buffalo, buffalo hunt, causeway, fielding garr, great salt lake, mormon, salinity, salt lake, scenery, sea monkeys, Utah
First Impressions of Salt Lake City
August 8, 2005 | Leave a Comment
As we flew into Utah the first things we could see from the plane were Bingham Copper Mine and Utah Lake. Next we made out Salt Lake City, and then specifically our hotel. Clearly I’ve been spending too much time in satellite view in Google Maps… Soon the Great Salt Lake became overbearingly apparent. The plane also passed over Farmington Bay as we came in for a landing. From the air the “bay” appears more to be salt marshes and flats than an actually useful body of water.
As we left the airport Sara was very pleased by the giant mountins all around us. Finding the Hilton Hotel took mere minutes. I already began to get the impression that finding my way around Utah was not going to be difficult.
After getting settled into the hotel we took a quick trip into the city, only about a 7 minute drive. The city is layed out in a simple to follow grid pattern, however, the street names are a bit rough to get used to. Take a peak at them on Google Maps. You’ll see that most street have to directions in them, ex E 900 S or S 900 E which are entirely different roads. Also there are about 3 major streets named Temple. It’s a tad more confusing than say New York City where numbered streets run one way and avenues the other, or DC where numbers are one way and letters the other. You get the point.
Overall this seems like a cool place, it should be fun.
Tags: Bingham copper mine, farmington bay, google maps, great salt lake, mountains, salt lake city, scenery, Utah