Utah Long Ago

(UtahMike had plans for himself (which I always encourage) for once today. So we got going early this morning so we could get a walk in before Mike needed to leave. We did the same trail along the river that we did the other day. The early morning views were very pretty.



We weren't up early enough to see any of the beavers but we could certainly see the signs that they'd been here.



Being that it was early morning, it was chilly, cloudy, and the sun wasn't peaking through at all. This made Sparkie really sad as she knew this was the grasshopper trail. She kept looking all over the place for them but they were nowhere to be found. Mike kept trying to explain to her that they were all tucked away since it was still cold - but she didn't understand. Poor Sparkie.

Wazzu was much more interested in the chickens that we saw in the section where the trail goes behind some houses. The yards were nice and large yet these poor eight chickens were cram packed into this tiny little cage.



The walk was only an hour and forty minutes (all on leash) so the dogs weren't tired but at least they had a little bit of exercise so they could be relatively calm while Mike went on his outing.

I'm not sure what this was all about as Wazzu rarely wants to be near anyone let alone touch them. But Wazzu got up on the couch and laid down next to Slugger and they both went sound asleep. (Slugger was in heaven as he loves nothing more than to be touched - especially by one of the other dogs.)



After entertaining everyone this morning, I (Mike) visited the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, between Provo and Salt Lake City. It was a nice little museum, with good, up-to-date displays on the history of life on Earth. Unlike many natural history museums it was pretty thorough for all periods and did not skip over the hundreds of millions of years of little squirmy critters between the Cambrian and the dinosaurs. Here is a good display of an underwater life scene from about the Silurian Period, about 420 million years ago.



I managed to get almost to the end of the Permian before the place started filling up with screaming little kids. But I was good and didn't send any of them to sleep with the trilobites. (A paleontology/Godfather movie pun? Sorry.)

Utah is in the middle of the first and most famous dinosaur hunting areas in the world, and they had quite of bit of interesting information about the history of bone hunting in the area. One of the ways modern paleontologists find new fossils is to look through the records of the bone hunters of the 1800’s, relocate their dig sites and use modern methods to find even more fossils.
They had a lot of information about a couple of dinosaurs that were found originally in Utah – an extra large type of brontosaurus called Supersaurus (the tail which you can't see is as long as the neck),



and a predator called Ceratosaurus.



Other displays were a Pterodactyl:



And a Tyrannosaurus:



Before the yelling and running of the kids got too bad I made it to the end of their display that had some relatively recent animals I had never seen before, a really big scary looking bird...



A super sized great white shark....



And a cute little type of elephant about the size of a miniature horse.



They also had a theater showing 3-D movies about dinosaurs, but I skipped that once I saw the line of little kids. Overall, a pretty worthwhile visit.

Debbie & Mike
9/28/07

Rock Canyon

(Provo, UT) After a leisurely morning we headed up to Rock Canyon, which is just behind the BYU football stadium, for a hike. Mike had researched and found a hike which was supposed to be fairly flat called the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

It started out really pretty and fairly flat.



I'm not sure where this trail got its name as we are nowhere near the lake or its shore. In fact, after only about a half mile the trail wasn't pretty anymore at all. It was just a gravel trail that just went behind a whole bunch of peoples back yards. We couldn't see anything but the backs of houses. And it wasn't even all that flat so we decided to turn back.

In the PNW you can often hike places and go through bunches and bunches and dandelions. Well here we hiked through lots of sunflowers. They weren't very big but they were very colorful.





There was only one other trail and it went up the canyon. We decided to give it a try and hope it wasn't too steep. As it turned out, today was field trip day for the middle school kids. Fortunately they were all just coming back down and reaching the trailhead when we started up.
We began with all the dogs on leash but it soon became apparent that we were the only ones there so we let the girls and Boogie off leash. Once again, Boogie was perfect. He stayed right on the trail and always came when called.

After going just a short ways we turned around to see a pretty view of Utah Lake. One thing we've noticed is that pretty much every where we go now it is hazy. It sure wasn't like that 20 years ago.



The trail up the canyon was a steady incline and was fairly wide - about the width of a one lane road although no motorized vehicles were allowed. On one side of the trail was a fairly steep drop off. The other side of the trail was a steep incline so the dogs weren't going to stray far at all - but Slugger was kept on leash nonetheless.



The leaves on the trees were turning colors and that made for some very pretty views.



While it was fairly well treed we did get some nice views of the canyon as we climbed.



Speaking of climbing, Boogie seems to think he is a little mountain goat as he would go up and down the steep banks without a thought.



At one point when we looked back we could just see Utah Lake in the distance.



Mike really enjoyed the different rock formations. There were some that were layers of rock that had been totally put on their side due to the forces that built the mountain.



I think Mike's favorite rocks were the swirly ones. I must say they were very interesting.



Since I'm not a geologist, I more enjoyed looking at the scenery as a whole. To me it was so pretty to see the huge rock formations in the distance with the colorful trees in the foreground.



I thought this was very interesting with the clouds all along the tops of the rocks.



There must be something to this as there were clouds just behind the tops of these rocks as well.



Even though the trail was just a steady incline, it still was an incline. So after a while we had to turn around and go back down.



It was a perfect day. The temperature was very comfortable in just a t-shirt, it was sunny out, the views were pretty, and the trail was empty so the dogs could run around free. And since Boogie could be off leash that meant I could take pictures that weren't blurry. (When he's on leash it seems he yanks just at the very moment I go to snap a picture.)

Mike and I both enjoyed the colorful leaves as somehow we missed that season last year. We were always in the wrong place for that.



The canyon here really reminded us both a lot of Las Cruces, NM. The rock formations seemed to be the same. The only difference is that in Las Cruces there is a big bowl in the canyon which makes for a nice and fairly flat hike.



When we were about 3/4 the way back we bumped into (not literally) another bunch of school kids on a field trip. The only bad thing was that meant we needed to get the dogs back on leash - too bad as they were having so much fun. We actually let Wazzu stay off leash as she is very gentle with kids and will usually ignore them unless they approach her.

The kids were supposed to be learning about rock formations, fossils, salt water, etc. But it seemed they were all much more interested in the four dogs that were hiking. The kids were in groups of 15 and there were lots of groups spread out on the trail. Each time we got to another group the kids would stop listening to the instructor and they would all start petting the dogs and asking questions about the dogs. I sure hope their test includes questions on the dogs as the kids were very intrigued by the dogs. Wazzu loves kids and thought this was a lot of fun....until the kids would notice the puppy. Suddenly then Wazzu was forgotten and the puppy got all the attention. Poor Wazzu - but it was good socialization for Boogie.

As we neared the bottom we came across a Stellar jay. I chased him around for quite a bit trying to get a clear shot. This was the best I could do.



While I was able to get a number of pictures today, this one is my favorite. It looked even better in person as you could see the sunbeams coming over the side of the mountain. But nonetheless, I like this picture.



Hopefully the weather will stay nice and we'll have more opportunities to explore the area while we're here.

Debbie
9/27/07

Grasshopper Pie

(Provo, UT) About 1/3 mile from our RV park is a nine mile trail (18 miles round-trip) that goes along beside the Provo River. When we first started, the scenery was so pretty as we could see the distant hills. It was a bit hazy out today but it was still beautiful.



We're out in the country and on the left side of the trail we passed a number of farms.






As we got further down the trail we must have come a little closer to town as we could see some buildings in the background.



All along the right side of the trail was the Provo River.



There were points in the river where the water was flowing at a pretty good speed. However, there were other places in the river where the water was much more still. In those places there were many fish that were jumping out of the water to get the many bugs that were flying just above the water.

I tried and tried to get a picture of the fish but I was always too slow. But here you can at least see the rings of the many jumping fish!



Much to my surprise (and delight), when I looked at my pictures I did manage to catch one fish in the air - on the right side of the picture!



Also at home on the river were quite a few ducks.



Just a bit further down the trail we happened upon a bunch of grasshoppers. They were really good size and most of them were very active. The trail had shady spots and sunny spots. Each time we came to a sunny spot there would be grasshoppers on the trail.



Boogie and Sparkie loved to chase the grasshoppers. Each time we would come to a sunny spot on the trail they would look for grasshoppers. They would chase them all over the place - and these things would jump high! One time Sparkie actually caught one up in the air over her head.

Boogie was remarkably good at catching them as well.



He didn't seem to understand that once he punched them they weren't going to do any more jumping.



After he would catch them, he'd lie down and play with them a little bit - as though he was trying to get them to jump again.



One difference between Sparkie and Boogie is that once Boogie determined they weren't going to jump anymore, he would eat them. This grossed me out.



Sparkie on the other hand thought they tasted horrible. When she would snap at them and actually catch one she would make the most horrible face and spit them out as fast as she could. I tried to get them away from Boogie but I know he ate at least four of them. Mike kept telling me that they are a delicacy in many places but I wasn't convinced. Yuck!

We took a little detour at one point and came across an oxbow lake. It was formed when the river changed sometime in the past.



We didn't see much bird life here but we did see a black-billed magpie.



When we got home, Mike asked me what I wanted for dinner. I said anything without the word grasshopper in it!

Oh, I forgot to tell you - Boogie was five months old yesterday. Oh he's growing up too fast. He already lifts his leg - Slugger didn't do that until he was two years old! And to mark his five month birthday he lost his first tooth.



I guess the tooth fairy better get busy and run out and by a nylabone as the little guy is going to need to start chewing a lot.

Debbie
9/26/07

Buffalo Sighting

(Rawlins, WY/Provo, UT) It was super clear and there were nice blue skies when we awoke this morning – but that meant it was really cold. Certainly time to move on.

As usual, we stopped about 1:00pm for lunch. It just so happened that in a large field right next to the rest stop there was a herd of buffalo.



One of them was super huge and when he saw us with four dogs he decided maybe he should get up. But he was so big that in order to get up he had to roll and roll to get enough momentum to help him up.



My, what a process this big guy had to go through to get up. Then we noticed a baby feeding from the mom. Now that's a big baby!



It took a while but I finally got one to look at me!




The whole time we were looking at the buffalo, the dogs were putting their noses in the all the holes in the ground. Then we noticed a badger running around and pouncing. I guess it was hunting time.



About that time a large bird came swooping down as he figured he’d just found lunch.



But when he realized how big the badger really was changed his mind. You could certainly tell he was disappointed.

From there we had to go over some mountains to get to the Salt Lake City area. There was some snow on the ground but fortunately not on the road. We made it to our campground in Provo, UT just fine. We've been to this campground before - it's quiet as it is away from the freeway and not near any train tracks which is highly unusual!

Debbie
9/25/07