More Moab; Salt Lake City

Hey Guys! We're in Salt Lake City now staying with the Allgaier's in their beautiful home that overlooks the city (pictures below). We've had a great time here and have been here longer than expected because we're waiting on my fly rod that Laurel so generously sent us. (I got ALL my fly fishing gear but the most important thing - the rod). So, it should be here today (Thursday), then we'll head out tomorrow morning to Jackson, WY and Yellowstone (where I will use that fly rod).

Anyway, here are some pictures from the rest of our visit in Moab and our visit here in SLC...

The drive into Arches National Park

Balanced Rock. You can also see it in a broader picture above.

This rock is HUGE and amazing how it's balanced on there.

We hiked to Delicate Arch (3 mile round trip)

It was pretty incredibly huge, as you can see us standing next to it below.

Nell in an arch the over out onto Delicate Arch. We then hike to an arch called "Double O". It was a 4.2 mile round trip hike.

Along the way, we ran into this guy - Landscape Arch. We learned later that in the 1970s when Arches National Park opened up, they misprinted the maps and mixed up Landscape and Delicate arches, and they remain named wrong to this day.

Hiking...

This is "Double O". You can't really tell here, but under the big O, there is a smaller one underneath.

Nell = hardcore

2 Above: for all you plant lovers

A great canyon sunset

Baby big-horned sheep. We saw a lot of these guys
through Colorado and southern Utah



This is us after a 16 mile bike ride. We rode to "Klondike Bluffs" which you can see in the distance behind us. It was a really tough ride because the first 8 miles were up hill the entire way. At the top, it over looked Arches National Park. The ride down wasn't great because it was so bumpy. My back is still a little sore from getting jarred so much on that ride. As Mark Twain said, "I'm glad we did it. Partly because it was well worth it, but chiefly because we shall never have to do it again."

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We then ventured into Salt Lake City. We were caught off guard by how much we love this city. It's beautiful, with the surrounding mountains, canyons, and ski areas. We'd love to come back here...

The first day we went to Park City and messed around. Then we went to the Allgaier's home, which over looks the city. It's very incredible...

This is on the drive down the mountain from the Allgaier's house. It was raining and we caught a picture of a great rainbow. (It was actually a double, but the other one didn't want to show on the camera)

We drove through "Big Cottonwood Canyon" and ran into this creek, fed by melted snow...

As we were approaching the end of the road (still closed because of snow), we ran across...
a porcupine! HUGE! Look at that thing compared to Nell.

Big Cottonwoood Canyon...

I think this picture is taken from the Allgaier's back porch. ...yeah.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Allgaier took us downtown to the Mormon temple square...

The temple.

Inside the square.

Brigham Young statue with the temple in the background.

The temple from the 10th story of the Joseph Smith memorial building.

The top of the temple. (Notice the pure gold statue on the top of it.)

While we were driving around, we got blocked off by the police. We walked down and a few minutes late a huge motorcade came by. And who was it, but the President himself.
It was pretty cool. Nell and I both have seen different Presidents speak, and we decided that their motorcade was much more exciting.

The car to the very left is the President's. So we think. Nell's swore she saw him in there. Short man with a smirk... couldn't have been anyone else.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...