Part 2, November 2008 Land Cruise News

We continued on our land cruise toward the eastern border of Oregon.

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We camped at the John Holladay State Park. Our view from the camper was this creek and a pasture full of cows. Very peaceful and quiet. The weather up until now has been in the 50's during the day and cooler at night. Very doable especially since it has only rained during the night.

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As we progressed, we noticed more and more snow on the mountaintops. Hmmmm. What's up ahead?

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We encountered a blizzard at 5,000 feet. We made it through without chaining up but with a pucker factor of about 9.5.

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The weather improved as we entered Idaho. We camped at Three Island State Park in Idaho right on the Snake River. Only two other campers here and deer. These deer are much larger than we have in Sitka and have huge ears. They are known as Mulies.

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One of our campsites in Utah was the Antelope Island State Park. Antelope Island is one of 3 islands in the Great Salt Lake. This is the view through the window from our camper settee.

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This was the first time I'd seen the Salt Lake. I had no idea how big it was until we got here.

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Naure abounds on Antelope Island. Jack rabbits run around all over the place. A herd of bison lives on the island. Two bison were introduced on the island in the 1800's. The herd is estimated at about 500-700 now. The park service conducts a yearly roundup to check the herds health, but leave the older bulls alone because they are dangerous and tear up the equipment. We just missed the roundup. It would have been great to see.

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There are very few fences on this island so the visitors need to stay alert. No petting the bison. The bison is on the top of the food chain on this island.

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This guy took off as we drove by.

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We took a hike and ran across a flock of Chuckers.

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Not sure what this guy is.

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This coyote sauntered through a herd of bison and then trucked across the road.

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Two Great Horned Owls perched in a bunch of trees near the Antelope Island Ranch.

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We took a side trip to the Kennecott Copper Mines outside Bingham, only to be stopped at the gate. No entry today. Blasting!!!! It was dissappointing as this is the largest open copper mine in the world. Astronauts can see it from space.

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Lots of snow on the mountaintops surrounding Salt Lake City. One thing that really impressed us about Utah, and Salt Lake City especially, was the size of homes. Seems like everyone in this state can afford very large homes. We saw developments with prices starting in the $180,000's.

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We continued southeast toward Zion National Park. Before we got close, we encountered some outstanding rock formations. And the colors!!!!

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The Prize burning up bytes taking landscape pictures.

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Sunset in our Zion National Park campsite. Notice the moon and the jet aircraft approaching it.

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Utah is truly amazing! The ruggedness of the mountains, the wonderful colors and the diversity of plant life. This is classified as high desert and at 6,000 feet oak , maples and aspen among other trees are found. Various flowers in glorious colors, and surprisingly, we found ferns!

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This retirement is hard work!

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Even the Prize rests once in awhile! You can tell Chuck is narrating because I don't refer to myself as the Prize.

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Ferns were found at the base of a huge, straight-sided bluff.

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Beautiful wild flowers and a bee hard at work.

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We believe the blue stains on these rocks are the result of water leaching cuprous oxide.

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The Prize in front of a high cliff and the Reflective Pool.

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Here are some kids playing in the Virgin River close to the end of the trail. The river keeps going into caverns that we tourists don't have access to.

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Showing the diversity, wild flowers, trees and cactus.

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Many of the trails went along steep-to canyon walls like these. We are looking straight up from the trail.

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In the center of this picture, notice the vertical column with the crevis going 3/4 of the way up. If you look reaaaaal close, you might see eight people climbing.

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Here are two of the eight.

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Two more of the eight. Too exciting for our tastes.

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Small waterfalls fell across or near the trails.

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These column forms are known as "Hoodoos".

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We took this from under a small waterfall. It made for an interesting photo.

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These clouds brought "weather" the next day.

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The next day brought some sunshine and then clouds and rain. I took a 2.5 mile walk along the Virgin River. The following photos were taken while on that walk.

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Not sure what these berry things are.

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The storm is coming.

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*****End Part 2*****