Wild, Wild West... Part II - Day 8

Day 8 - Salt Lake City, Utah to Moab, Utah

We began our travel to Moab, Utah on the morning of Day 8 with Chris telling the kids if they spoted a place called Cowboy Donuts on the way (without GPS) then we would do some more donut research. CJ was spot on! Or maybe she cheated... either way, we stopped and ordered a sampling. They were very similar in look to our hometown favorite but not quite a good - a little too dense for a traditional yeast glazed. Cowboy Donuts did have an orange cream glazed donut that was awesome though! And their shop was super cute!

We made our way to Moab, were able to check in a little early to our hotel, dropped our stuff and headed for Canyonlands National Park.  We explored the Island in the Sky section of the park and oh my, the views were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

During our canyon views, Chris kept pointing out the White Rim Road to me and the kids - which is a road that descends from the top of the park and follows the rim of the lower canyon. Before we even came on this this trip I told him there was NO WAY my children and I would go on that road. Search it on YouTube and you will understand!

White Rim Road borders the fingers of the canyon in the photo on the left! 

So, we started with the Upheaval Dome viewpoint. It's basically a giant, giant hole (over 2 miles wide to be precise) with a huge mound in the center (the upheaval). The interesting bit about the area is that there are two theories of how it was formed. One is that a giant meteor hit it ages ago. Another is that there was once a large salt lake there and it evaporated and left huge mounds of salt that have basically petrified in the center. Who knows?

Also, in Canyonlands, we viewed Mesa Arch, Green River Overlook and Grandview Point. I just can't describe the magnitude and magnificent nature of the views. As Jac put it, it looks like a giant backdrop - like it's almost not real. It's just hard to believe the bigness of it!

Mesa Arch 

Green River Viewpoint - wide angle on top; zoomed in view on bottom. Green River formed the Canyon.

Cute little Jack Rabbit the hopped by!

Silly kids pretending to fall off the cliff. They know how sweaty my palms get when they are around cliffs with NO railings!!

More beautiful plants!

We left the park in time for a late dinner and tested out a local Mexican place. El Charro did not disappoint!

Audrey and I tried some late night star gazing in Canyonlands but between the almost full moon and a few clouds, we weren't that successful. Guess we will have to come back for another visit!

Tomorrow... Arches National Park!

Wild, Wild West... Part II - Day 7

Day 7 - Twin Falls, Idaho to Salt Lake City, Utah

We began Day 7 with a very serious matter - donut research. We live in a town that has a nationally ranked donut shop so we feel that it's our civic duty to determine if the national honor is actually deserved! We found Jim Bob and Son Bakery and ordered a variety for comparison. While overall, their donuts were good, their traditional yeast donut didn't hold a candle to our Daily Donuts. I did love their Old Fashioned donut though! It was the closest I've every had to the childhood donuts my dad and grandfather used to bring back from a donut shop in Chilhowie, VA after doing business there. My donut research goes waaaaaaaay back!

Snake River Canyon exploration in Twin Falls, Idaho filled the rest of our morning on Day 7. We started with Shoshone Falls State Park. The falls there boast a height of over 212 feet and are taller than Niagra Falls. Just beautiful! Chris got the drone out for the first time on our trip (drones aren't allowed in National Parks) and took some amazing video footage!

Next we took a very short drive to the falls which gave the town their name - Twin Falls. A little disappointing though because Twin Falls is now Singlet Falls due to hydro electric power. The power company also had very tall fencing up so viewing the singlet is obstructed.

Our next Snake River Canyon exploration will be appreciated by all of you who were children in the 70s. We, well Chris mostly, were determined to find the spot where Evel Knievel made his grand attempt to jump the canyon! And we did! After we stopped at the visitor center and asked, that is. The lady working... "There it is! Right out the window - not that big a deal." Chris, "Well, I guess that depends on who's looking!" She agreed.

See the dirt mound/ramp just to the right of the bottom center? That is the remaining dirt ramp that help establish Evel Knievel's jumping ramp.

I made sure to leave our pin on the Twin Falls map at the visitor center and then we headed to one more Snake River Canyon destination - Perrine Falls.

In our search for Evel's ramp and Perrine Falls, Patterson #'s 3 and 4 convinced Patterson #5 to pull out her DANGLING tooth by agreeing to give her all the remaining mint Oreos! She agreed, pulled the tooth and then decided to make its home the Snake River Canyon by throwing it into the falls when we got there. They are a crazy bunch!

We eventually found this much more elusive and smaller falls, but 5 our of 5 Patterson's agreed, it was the best! This waterfall had a trail leading up to it, or what we thought was a trail, straight up the very steep side of the canyon wall leading to a path going behind the waterfall. So, be the adventurers we are, we hiked up the incredibly steep and slippery sand canyon wall because we were going to go behind that waterfall!! We were all close to the top when Jac, the leader, got there and said, "Uh, I hate to tell you guys but just to our right is a gently sloping trail from below that I think we were supposed to take." Well, at least I got points toward my Active Ring goal on my Apple watch and no one plummeted to their death so we were good. Except that Patterson #5 forgot the tooth!

We took the remaining gentle slop to the falls and IT WAS AMAZING!!!! So the lesson is if you are in Twin Falls, Idaho, see Shonshone Falls, skip "Twin" Falls, and then spend a bunch of time behind Perrine Falls.

After our descent, we found an overlook to the falls so CJ could give the tooth a send off and then were were off to Utah via a drive through the Northeast corner of Nevada.

By the way, see that TINY car parked along the road by some trees on the opposite side? That's where we hiked up the canyon wall. Now see that large gentle sloping trail a little further down that follows the curve of the canyon? We should have taken that one!

Our first stop in Utah was Bonneville Salt Flats.  This was one place my guy really wanted to see. And honestly, I'm so glad we accommodated his request! This area was once covered by a huge salt lake but now is just acres and acres of flat land COVERED in the remaining salt.  His interest in the area stems from the races they do there every summer as well as the land speed records that have been made there. And yes, the Pattersons set their own land speed record for the fastest Texas-flood-recovered-2003-Yukon XL-loaded-down-with-a-family-of-5-and-their-stuff vehicle.

We stopped to literally watch a rain shower come across the Utah landscape!

Entering Salt Flats

The salt flats were like nothing I had ever seen. It's really difficult to describe. It's like a sea of white. It was also a little damp and stuck to everything! Honestly, though, it was really very pretty in its own salt-flat way. Chris took more drone footage here and everyone got a chance to drive on the salt flats.

Oh, how I love these three!!!

Next we were on the hunt for our out-west fix of In-n-Out Burger! We found it and enjoyed!

On our way to our stopping point for the night, south of Salt Lake City, we kept seeing random fireworks - literally everywhere... for miles! We thought, "Wow, what a greeting!" But in reality, Salt Lake City had no idea we were coming; it turned out to be Pioneer day for the whole town. Oh well, maybe our next stop with greet us with fireworks - here we come Moab!