Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake City happened to be on the way so I planned a stop there. Campgrounds really close in are a bit expensive but I found Circle L Mobile Home and RV Park in Layton, UT  at a reasonable price. It is right off the I15 north of Salt Lake. The entrance is pretty strange since it is right between Big O Tires and a dry cleaner/laundromat and does not look like a street but rather a small parking lot. Turn in though and you will see the entrance to the park. There is no pool or clubhouse or Wifi. No camp store or other amenities. It is just like living in a normal house neighborhood. The sites are very nice though with full utilities and lots of parking at each site. They do have an inexpensive laundry of their own which is great since the nearby laundromat is very expensive. Walmart and tons of restaurants are nearby including a Hometown Buffet. There is even a Camping World just down the road in Kaysville.

I found my missing brother living in Salt Lake City. It’s been a long, long time. We got to spend a lot of time together while I was there for a week and I had to promise to come back for the winter so we could help each other out with various things.

I went out to Antelope Island one lovely day. Another of those long drives out over water where you hope the road actually is intact all the way and there is something at the other end. Being a state park, you have to pay to go out there. It is an island in Salt Lake that is full of wildlife including bison and has bunches of camping sites though no utilities. I stopped at the Visitor’s Center to get oriented. The birds love the Visitor’s Center too. They flock all around it and it is covered in bird you-know-what. I got some great pics of the bison herds in the marsh and out on the beach flats. There is an old ranch there you can tour which was pretty interesting. I liked the cowboy wagon, the cold house with a spring that runs through it, the picnic area, and the outside bath that was added on to the house for ranch hands to use.

Another day, I introduced my brother to geocaching. We hit 3 and he seemed to enjoy it even while teasing me about how silly it can look.

We had to go out to Promontory to see the Golden Spike Museum. While the museum is not on the exact spot where trains from the east and west met up as the last rails and spikes were laid, it is very close. Actually, the silly men in charge couldn’t decide where to have the tracks meet up so both competing companies kept laying track miles past each other until a decision was finally made. They have an excellent movie about it and some of the original track runs past the museum with 2 working replica locomotives of the two that were at the original ceremony. Of the Golden Spike, there were actually about 6 ceremonial spikes donated by different interests and none remained there after the ceremony nor were any of them really driven in. The one we all think of is currently at Stanford. Most of the rails in that area were later bypassed when a better route was found and the rails were pulled up during WWII due to the steel shortage. Better to use them for tanks and planes than just leave them out there for nothing. My brother, Dale, and I had some fun with George. You know how George loves trains and engineers. Dale walked around with George on his shoulder there and found it to be a great way to meet women. Believe it! We got one of the train engineers to pose with George. Then we both got wicked ideas. We found some rope in the car and tied up George then placed him on the tracks. Oh the horror! We have some great pics of the Perils of George for you all.

We went out to Salt Aire. It used to be a fabulous resort with swimming in Salt Lake. Trains brought thousands of tourists to this lavish spa. Today it is used as a concert venue.

Rode the Trax train around downtown Salt Lake City. Toured Temple Square, the Conference Center, and the Tabernacle.  Good to see how other religions do things. Fascinating how the Tabernacle was designed to amplify sounds naturally without microphones.  Conference Center is quite a  theater complex and it has a rooftop garden/prairie with fountains.  It also contains an LDS art gallery. Checked out Brigham Young’s house and saw movie on origins of Church of Latter Day Saints.

For more pics click here.