Salt Lake

Leaving Montana we headed on our way to perry Utah. Unfortunately the day we left Montana was my son’s 14th birthday. So to compensate for not being able to celebrate his birthday we started Sunday at a Brazilian steak house. The next morning we gave him his birthday gift and finished packing the camper up.

Wednesday came around the day he was born and I made his birthday breakfast and we went on our way to Perry Montana. Pulling into the KOA at 6:30 mountain time hooked up the camper to the electricity and turned the heat on we headed out to the Maddox Ranch restaurant for a birthday dinner.

The next day we headed to North Ogden to “The Stump”.  This stump provides spring water that anyone can stop by and fill up their canteens with fresh water. The water fountain at this time was shut off for winter but just a short walk to the left will bring you to where the water runs freely from some pipes coming out of the ground. A short walk to the right will bring you to a little man made river where a flock of ducks were swimming and fishing.

After filling up with some fresh spring water we made our way to Golden Spike National Monument. The first thing we did was get a picture buy the National Park sign and the giant rail road sculptor. Upon our entrance to the visitors center we took the opportunity to renew our park pass.

The girls received their junior ranger workbooks then we sat down and watched a 20-minute history lesson on railroads. Exiting the auditorium there was a little display that had power points on when the railroads met.

We learned that the central pacific railroad started in Sacramento, and ended in a Promontory and 690 miles. The steam engine used was called Jupiter number 60.

On the flip side, the union pacific railroad traveled from Omaha to Promontory using locomotive 119. The UPRR traveled 1089 miles building the railroad tracks. Each day the railroad laborers were able to build 10 miles of track.

If you are here in May golden spike park does a type of memorial of the joining railways. During the reenactment, the actors show that it took seven spikes to join the two railroads together. They have a replica of the golden spike in residence at the visitors’ center. This replica spike was one of several objects that went to space in the 1990s in the “Orbiter Atlantis.” The original golden spike was owned by David Hewes is residing at Stanford University.

On our way out after reading the power points we had a photo op on the tracks.

Leaving the visitors center we took a right to head to see the “Spiral Jetty”. ” Spiral Jetty” was created by a man named Robert Smithson. Smithson created this jetty in 1970 the materials he used were basalt rock, salt, and dirt. He made this spiral twice because the first one turned out to look more like a “j” instead of a spiral.

At the time we went to see the jetty it was visible and not submerged in the salt lake. Since the lake was not submerging the Spiral Jetty we were able to walk down onto the lake bed and explore a little.

I wanted to attempt walking to the water’s edge but because we arrived later than we wanted it was a no-go. On the bright side, we were able to see salt in its natural habitat. Below are different formations of salt.

After exploring Spiral Jetty completely we headed on to see the Chinese Arch and saw where the old train bed was laid.

The end of the day brought us back home to get dinner cooked and eaten. Dinner was pork chops, mashed cauliflower, and roasted asparagus. The dessert was roasted marshmallows.

I know this was a long post. I appreciate that you stopped by and read it. There are lots of pictures to enjoy as well. I have a lot more but figured that posting more up would be overdoing it.

In either case, whether you read my post or just took the time to see the pictures thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to like or comment below.