Yellowstone to Salt Lake City

Yellowstone

From the Canadian border we traveled south through Montana to Yellowstone National Park.  Home of geysers, hot springs, mud pots and wildlife.  All of which we saw on our exploring.   Stayed in West Yellowstone at a really nice private campground and drove into the park daily to explore.  The park was crowded, but not too bad.   Took the time to go see Old Faithful erupt along with the other hords of tourists.   Will certainly not go back in July again.  That's the height of their tourist time.  


Part of Mammoth Hot Springs

Geothermal pool

Waterfall in Yellowstone

Old Faithful going off

Yellowstone Lake in background

Buffalo making himself at home

After our time in Yellowstone we drove south into the Grand Tetons.   What a spectacular chain of mountains.   So rugged and still had a little snow on them.  I can remember coming here with my Mom and Dad way back in the 60's and it was just as impressive then as it is now.   David and I have never camped in Grand Tetons so we decided to stay in the National Park.   The campground was pretty nice.   We did our exploring there too.

Teton Peak

My Ansel Adams look

So majestic

After Grand Tetons we went further south to Crater of the Moons National Monument near Arco, Utah.  This is an area of tremendous basalt flows and cinder cone volcanoes that erupted about 2,000 years ago.  The location was used by NASA astronauts back in 1969 to train for their moon mission.   Since they weren't geologists, but fighter pilots, NASA wanted them to learn what rock samples they were supposed to collect.   What a place to do that.   David and I hiked out to lava tubes, up a cinder cone (well ok, he went all the way up and I went part way) and just enjoyed the beauty of the place.




On the Cinder Cone

Hiking out to Lava Tube

From Craters of the Moon we went on to Salt Lake City.   We've never been there before and wanted to see the Morman Temple and of course the Great Salt Lake.   We also had the opportunity to go out to the Kennecott Bingham Canyon Copper Mine.   Boy that place is HUGE.   It can actually be seen from space.  The Morman Temple downtown in Salt Lake city is really something to see.   We learned that it took 40 years to build creating each stone by hand.   The architecture is really outstanding.   Of course there were Mormans all over the place.  They were extremely friendly and were more than willing to tell you anything you wanted to know about the temple grounds.



Taken from observation deck

Kennecott Copper Mine

Tires cost $25,000 each

After going to Kennecott Mine we drove out to Antelope Island State Park near Ogden, Utah.   Here we actually went in the Great Salt Lake water.....boy is it truly salty.  25% salt content.   You would need about a 50 pound weight belt if you wanted to dive in this lake. 


The water is so still it's hard to tell where it is



David floating in the salty water

Me wading in the water of Salt Lake

After Salt Lake we are heading to Vernal, Utah.  Home of Dinosaur National Monument.   We will stay there a few days and then decide where we will head from there.   More later.   Love, Felicia and David (aka  Mom and Dad, Nana and Papa)