Monday, 15 August 2016

From Salt mines to Dinasoars -- All in a Days Drive

We have a ranch to go to in the morning --- Rainbow Trout Ranch or www.rainbowtroutranch.com if you want to have a nose-- so with a 4 - 5 hour drive looming first thing in the morning I thought I would try to capture what for us both has been a real eye opener today , following the trip yesterday and at least another 320 miles east on the US 50 again and the I - 70.

Firstly I am writing this from a town called MOAB in Utah, --- you ever heard of it -- NO, well neither had we but we now know that this place is the Prehistoric capital of America, but am getting ahead of myself and more of that later.

We started having breakfast in the restaurant and it is the most bizarre setting of a restaurant I have ever seen------

So you have the restaurant on the top floor, the casino machines on the ground floor and --- oh yes a swimming pool and a hot tub on the lower level. You can even play Bingo in there while having dinner, pulling the one armed bandit at the same time or relaxing in the hot tub with a nice cocktail to go with it---very bizarre.

So off we go again with a 320 mile to go and to be honest , to begin with , we had pretty much the same as we did yesterday with plenty more of these views---





 
after around a quarter of the journey the views started to change a bit and were to get quite spectacular but first we saw the biggest salt lake that I have ever seen and we were not even in Salt Lake City----
 



They were just vast and hard to imagine how this can still be after all this time-- millions of years and still we cant use the land particularly---
 


Sorry for the blur but this was 99 degrees and we were and have been since we left Napa generally hovering around 7500 Ft to 5500 Ft above sea level and so the heat is unexpected.


And then the rains came and they fairly lashed it down but I should not have been worried as I was in the very capable hands of co-pilot Lynda for 2 hours as I was yesterday on the way to Ely----





But it was gone after around a half hour although with the cloud as well it was probably a good day for long drives
 

 
 These are from the two different days-- she really gave me stick for taking these--- so what's new !!
 
Now there were plenty of photos from the long distance roads and the same as anyone reading this has seen already but I tell you that when you go round a corner and see some of the canyons we saw near to a town called Moore, in Utah -- I think it was Millers Canyon-- then you get blown away-----
 















 
I am not sure why we should be surprised as this is not a million miles away to the north of Zion Park, Bryce Canyon  and of course the grand Canyon, but none the less it made the driving a bit more palatable.
 
So we got to MOAB and found it to be a thriving outdoor sporting town that not only has its link to winter sports up some of the higher mountains around but also with the white water rafting , zip lining and the like -- but what the heck-- me and my mate have done all that stuff , so not on the list.
 
So to wrap this up these are some images of what MOAB has to offer----
 
Petroglyphs which I am really interested in ---- We didn't see these but apparently they are amazing
 
 

 
We did drive up and see the arches but had not time for the walk to get up close---
 

 
After seeing those amazing rock formations in the other parks that we have been in this is right up there----
 
Then there is the Jurassic stuff where archaeologists have discovered many examples of the Prehistoric beast we have come to know and love elsewhere ---
 
 
They have a number of these dotted around the place to help capture the imagination but there are some serious tours and the like for those wanting to see the evidence of the creatures like this --
 
 
 
Which all in all warrants a note that coming back might not be beyond the stretch of our imagination.
 
So  we are off for some dinner now and who knows we might find the need to come visit again fairly strong as we are only gonna scratch the surface tonight--
 
 I would really like to see this vision at a sunset below
 
 Or capturing the Moon in this way is awesome


But a thoroughly pretty , busy town

 
Food and then bed--- gotta a ranch to go to in the morning.
 
But we did good yesterday and today but then of course we are the A Team.
 
End!
 
 

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