More mountain scenery and the Olympic Training Center

Our last day to explore before picking up Delaney and heading home!  We drove along I-80 and exited on Hwy 65 which took us along the Mormon trail that was blazed in the late 1800s by Brigham Young and other pioneers.  The pictures below are at the top of the East Canyon pass looking down into Salt Lake Valley.  I can't imagine how they must have felt to see that sight before them.  It was a quite a breathtaking view.

All along the Wasatch Range there are signs to not "Shred the 'Shed" - pollute the water shed.  About 185 sq miles of mountains with about 20 river basins and a number of reservoirs compose the watershed for the Salt Lake City valley and provide over 50% of the city's water.  There are signs all over about preserving the watershed, which include not taking your dog there or horses (without a permit), not off road vehicles, and other provisions to try to keep the water as pure as possible.  We noted that the reservoirs were quite low.  I don't know if this is seasonal (normal for July) or if it was a low water year  The water was down a good 30 ft from its high mark though.

 The dam.

 Part of the Mormon trail.  It very kind of muggy and unusually humid today because of a recent rain, but there were even ferns, so I think this part of the mountain gets regular rainfall.

 View from Lambs Canyon 

 1 for 1 with geocaches today.  We didn't put that much effort into it today.

We got to watch ski jumpers practice at the Olympic training center.  We thought we were just going to see the slopes, little did we realize they'd be taking live jumps into a giant swimming pool!  I could have stayed and watched this all day.  They had on life vests and paddled to the edge after the jump.  Several had coaches video taping them and they'd go over the jump and then climb to the top of the slope again for another run.

They even had a few kids who were jumping off a shorter ramp.  Some of them barely made it off the ramp.  I'm not sure what it takes to put a young kid on this ramp (money or motivation), but they had a lot of people cheering for them.

It does not look easy to get out of the pool with a left vest, helmet, AND skis attached to your feet!  You can't read her helmet, but it says "Nutcase" on it ; )

 They also had bobsled runs going on (with wheels, not on ice obviously).  We didn't make it to the center in time to watch them, but could see a few come around the last turn from a distance.  The clock was running and everything.

 They had inner tubes that you could ride down the ski jump slopes (the ones that didn't end in a pool)

 These were the largest slopes

Driving through the mountains and geocaching

Spent a fun day just driving along different canyon roads and looking for geocaches.  We picked up 11 today and found another travel bug and a geocoin.  I took lots of pictures because Delaney would not be happy with me if I didn't.  You can see the views and some of the caches below.

David got the first find of the day in a cammo rock.

This one was staring us in the face as we looked all over at ground level.

View looking across at Park City from Deer Valley

This one baffled us yesterday, but we returned again today with a new perspective and found it (see next picture)

Its a magnetic micro stuck behind the sign.  Tiny little scrolled log to sign.

This one was lodged in the rock next to the sign.

David spotted this one before I even approached the electric pole. (See the up close shot below)

Tiny little capsule hanging about 7 ft up on a nail!

 We drove into SLC to have a look at the capitol building and the tabernacle, but decided not to hang around and wait for rush hour traffic to build.

 This was our picnic spot after we returned to the canyons.

 With highs in the 90s, it was lovely to sit by this stream at 9000 ft and just relax (temp maybe 80 or so).

 We found several travel bugs.  I thought the moose was adorable, but he wanted to see other mountains (and maybe some hills), so I decided a trip to Kansas was probably not on his 'to do' list.  We took the civil war soldier instead (he has a union uniform on one side and confederate on the other).  He wants to travel to civil war battlefields, so we'll see what we can do.

The view from the summit was fabulous.  I don't know how far we could see, but it seemed like forever.

 Real moose!!  (Not the travel bug kind)

 Beaver lodge.  We also saw a beaver dam along a stream, but were unable to get close to the travel bug that was hidden near by.  We did manage to get scraped up a bit and walked through a bunch of sticker burrs and thistle, but emerged mostly unscathed from our adventures.

 View of Heber and the reservoir.

We were the first to find this newly placed geocache.  The clue was "follow the arrow", couldn't be more obvious!

We haven't had any rain, but the thunderheads were building in the distance.  Really pretty!

Another hiking day - to the lake!

Drove over to Brighton ski area today to catch a good hiking trail.  We were hoping to be able to drive a ways up a ski trail, but no luck.  So we hiked to Twin Lakes from the parking lot.  Not too far, about 2 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 500-700 ft.  No bushwhacking this time, the trail was wide enough for a jeep to drive and gravelly the whole way.

 It was strange to be walking on ski runs.  We came up "Main Street" which didn't exactly feel 'green'/easy to us as we walked up it!

 We had cell service the whole time, so David actually got a call from our neighbor while we were hiking.  Makes "getting away from it all" a little more challenging, but it was nice to have our maps fully functional the whole way so we could decide which trails we wanted to take.

 Twin lakes (its dammed up at one end)

 We picnicked then hiked to the far end of the lake to find some nice rocks in the shade and just relax.  I just watched the clouds blow of the mountains while David read.

 Cool lone pine.

Roller coasters, art, geocaching and sunsets

It sounds like a full day, but it was pretty lazy actually.  We headed over to the ski resort where they continue to add (overpriced) fun activities like the alpine slide (that we did with Delaney the day we arrived), a zip line, and a single seater roller coaster.  David and I decided to try the roller coaster today.  It pulls you up to the top of the slope, then releases you to go through several tight loops and bumps (you have control over the brakes, but brakes are for wimps says Carolyn).   It was fun!

Overlooking the old town of Park City.  We found two geocaches today.  One was on this hillside.

After dinner we decided to wander up Main street and look at the shops and art galleries.  I wish Delaney had been with us, she would have loved some of the sculptures we found!  All of there were by the same artist (originally from Colombia) and were made of bronze with glazes added for color.  Amazing details.

100% blown glass, price $1400!

Woven glass strips.  Price $5000.  Wow.

 I really liked these guys.  We saw them in several places and even out around the resort.  Don't know if its a new kind of mascot for the city or what.

 Can you find the fat marmot?