,,, that was the name of the fam tour we had registered for after Go West, a three-day tour to the NE corner of UT by bus, including Dinosaur NM, Flaming Gorge and Heber Valley with a mineral spring in a crater and a fairy-tale Ice Castle.
The tour started on Friday evening with a superbly creative dinner at Cafe Niche, still in SLC, before we departed for Vernal - a 3-hour drive at night, arriving at about 11 pm. Fortunately, our bus was large and comfy and perfectly equipped with WiFi, toilet, etc., our bus driver a character and the group small: nine persons, plus Becky, our host from UT Tourism. We could spread out and having the front seat, I never got car-sick as usual.
Saturday: Vernal (with dinosaurs everywhere, see pic on left) and the Dinosaur NM, the earth’s richest dinosaur fossil beds, an area where bones and fossils in abundance were (and still are) found in river sediments. Bones in the "Wall of Bones", a formation which was integrated into the new visitor/exhibition center dates 150 mio. years back. Unfortunately, because of government shut-down, the museum was closed and we were just able to peek in through the windows.
On to the UT Fieldhouse of Natural History (pic above) to see exhibits on prehistoric fossils and artifacts, and, a highlight to get a behind-the-scenes tour in the archives and laboratory by a paleontologist. Lunch and beer tasting in the Vernal Brewing Company was a real treat: food (Peter had quail/Wachtel, I had a great roastbeef sandwich) - and beers were great.
Snowstorm coming in and Flaming Gorge, about 8,500 ft. high (2,600 m) was our next destination. Paying respect to our great bus driver Colin who navigated the big bus slowly and safely through the snow, without seeing much of the road, to our final destination of the day: the Red Canyon Lodge, all cabins in the woods, what a great and remote location!
Despite the storm and the pretty chilly temps (around 20 deg. F.) part of the group went snowshoeing with the owner of the property, Mark. Walked through knee-high snow to an observation point and, though, Flaming Gorge (on pic left) was not "flaming" at all, but rather dull and black-and-white in the snowstorm, we got an idea of the gorge, the reservoir and all the outdoors being offered in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation area, especially, when we saw pictures of it during dinner at the Flaming Gorge Resort. Many fishing records (trouts) are broken here, wildlife (bighorn sheep, mountain lion, moose, pronghorn, etc.) in abundance, kayaking, hiking and stunning views.
From morning to afternoon snow piled up loosely, in fine flakes, about 3 ft. high. One day before: sunny and warm and no snow at all. Only with sturdy vans we got to the Flaming Gorge Resort for dinner (about 10 min.), ate great steaks and prime rib before heading back to the cabins. Still sat around a bonfire, roasting marshmallows and watching for stars in between snow flakes. Not really stargazing, as promised, but a little light show we got instead:
Sun. morning: still snowing. After breakfast out by bus, a pretty adventurous drive for the first miles till we got on the main highway.
On to Heber City - street conditions slowly improved - to Heber Valley (pics), where the winter Olympics 2002 took place. Got a chance to try snow tubing (pic) before lunch and soaked in the Homestead Crater (picture below on left) afterwards. This is a geothermal spring hidden within a 55-foot tall, beehive-shaped limestone rock with just a hole on top, very deep and about 90 deg. F. warm.
After soaking for about 45 min. checked in the close-by Zermatt Resort and headed out again after dinner to Midway Ice Castles, where thousands of icicles are placed in freezing temperatures and sprayed with water which makes the icicles grow. The artisans do this each day to create the phenomenal sculptures.
Boy, these two days were really packed! And, boy, really getting sick of the cold temps and snow!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen