Tuesday, April 11, 2006.  We are in Monument Valley, Navajo Tribal Park.  In Mittenview Campground and the price is right $10. per night.  Our view from the trailer window and campfire area is so spectacular that we do not want to leave.


This is a sunset view from our trailer campsite.  We are in awe. We were so fortunate to get the best site in the whole campground. We are on a small mesa "bluff" overlooking Monument Valley itself.


We went for a drive into the canyon.  This is the what's called the window view.

A natural sandstone formation as we were driving to the campground.

 
View of  our campsite. This destination is not a National Park... it is part of what the Navajo call, Navajo Nation. What a beautiful Country!
 		 You would think someone took a chisel and hammer and was carving something out of the sandstone.  But no, it's "O" natural.

We went for a 3.2 mile hike around this butte.
This is called the "totem pole". It's a wonder they remain standing.
 
These things grow like mushrooms!

 

Doesn't this look like a view in a western movie?
 
Can you see John Wayne riding his horse?

Denis is taking a rest after his walk is almost done.		 This is the interior of what is locally known as Goulding's Trading Post and his museum. This guy called Goulding set up a trading post in Monument Valley area about 1922. He was always trying to help the Navajos and gained their trust and respect and was (still is) the only commercial enterprise in this area on the reservation. He single handily, brought the movie industry into Monument Valley, starting with John Wayne in "Stagecoach" in 1938. He is also given credit for developing the Navajo Rug trading industry.

 

 

 

 Mr. Goulding has saved many Navajo lives because of his bringing the film industry to the reservation, at a time of depression and true hardships for the Navajos. This picture is of his 2-storey dwelling with trading post on main floor and view from his balcony overlooking Monument Valley in the distance. The Gouldings are no longer with us, as he passed away in 1981 and she in 1992. The museum is chock full of rare Native artefacts, jewellery and pictures, some dating as old as early 1,200's. Interestingly, the Goulding's namesake and business is today owned by a pair of brothers named "Laplante's". Hmmmmmm!
This is a sample of Leona "Mike" Goulding's jewellery on display at the museum. Very rare and authentic, handcrafted native silver and turquoise. This museum is a must see.

 

Friday, April 14, 2006.  We have left Mittens Campground but I have taken something with me. A sunburn. On the last day we decided to just stick around the campground and get sick of the view, so while enjoying the view and reading my book, I did not notice all the sun I was getting.  Usually when we are walking/hiking I have a t-shirt/shirt/jacket on and so do not get a lot of sun. I had to have been around 85 degrees.

We are at Needles section of Canyonland National Park. We have found a boon dock spot four miles out of the park entrance as their campgrounds are full. Spring is busy time as summer is too hot in this desert!

 


The Needles area at Canyonlands National Park

 

We hiked 5.8 miles to get this picture for you to see.

This formation is called the Needles which are formed by a series of fractures in the rock surface caused by movement along a deep, underlying layer of salt.  Erosion by rainwater and snow along the fracture lines resulted in these rows of columnar rocks.
Mind you the exercise did not hurt us.

 


 

See the mountains behind the needles.  We are quite high up.
Here we are a better look at the Needles and now all we have to do is go back.



 


Island In The Sky area of Canyonlands National Park.

We are looking from the "Canyonlands Rim" into what seems to be more canyons within the canyons.

The picture to the right shows you approximately how deep and large these canyons are. The road you see is the beginning of a 2 day, 100 mile, 4-wheel drive road through this park. Moab, the town nearby, is the capitol of 4-wheeling and just finished a 2 week Jeep 4-wheel rally with an estimated 30,000 participants going all over this place in their Jeep 4-wheelers! Lotsa-dust!

 

Tuesday, April 18, 2006.  Happy Easter, everyone.  Easter just is not the same without family and friends.  We sure do miss you all.  To-day we are at Arches National Park.

The Landscape Arch is the size of a football field. If you look on the right of the arch you will notice a difference in coloration.  In 1991 part of the arch fell, the people underneath it were not hurt. Since then they do not allow anyone under this arch due to it's fragility.

Double Arch.  The larger opening has a span of 144 feet - the third longest in the park - and a height of 112 feet - the highest in the park.
 

 
As you guessed, Arches National Park is all about Arches.

We are all rocked out.  We now have rocks in our heads and do not want to see another rock.

 

 

  

On our way North we were confronted with snow in the mountains.  It was really nice to look at but I was glad we were not staying in the mountains.
 
Thursday, April 20, 2006.  We are on our way to Salt Lake City.  The weather has been great since The Grand Canyon.  We are still waiting for it to warm up in the North.  We will stay in Salt Lake City for about a week. Denis will have some work done on the truck and we will do a bit of site seeing but also catch up on odd jobs that need to be done on the trailer.  It is 80 degrees here and we are loving it.

We started downtown at Temple Square, the gated 10 acre site of the original Mormon "Zion", heaven on earth and the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints - The Mormons. Then, on Sunday morning, we went to the 75 year old "Music and the Spoken Word" performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.


The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
What a treat it was to see and listen to this performance live.  If you watch them on television, it's lifeless and mono.  Live is so real and perfect and touching, there was hardly a dry eye in the audience.
Special guests were "Expressions of Silence", a group of young deft signers from a "Texas school for the Hearing", along with a very young local virtuoso soprano by the name Ryan Tani.
It was a spectacle and performance we will never forget!


The Choir first sang at a Church conference, August 22, 1847.... 29 days after the first Latter-day Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley. The choir today consist of 360 unpaid volunteer members... with a line-up to get in! Their first radio broadcast was in 1929 and is the longest running continual network broadcast in the world. This one was performance no. 3,999!
The Conference Center, where these are now held, has 21,000 seats! The building is quite the structure itself, covers nearly all the 10 acres it sits on and has over 6 acres of rooftop gardens, trees, meadows, waterfalls, art, murals, etc plus.... 4" thick marble walkways, patios...

Songs they sang were...
"SWEET PEACE", English folk song.
"BE STILL MY SOUL", music by Jean Sibelius
"MOURNING MOOD", from Peter Gynt
"IN DREAMS", from Lord of the Rings
"PRAYER OF THE CHILDREN", by Kurt Bestor
"SOMEWHERE", from West Side Story
Inside Temple Square
Bronze "Mother playing with Children".  There is so much beauty here with flowers, buildings, art and music that it draws people to it.  Everyone we met were kind and helpful.  They were literally inviting you to come in and see and of course hear their words but doing it in such a way that you wanted to be there.

 



The Mormon's have a couple of  art gallery's, with works of art and other exhibit's showing their journey and many very large original paintings describing the life of Jesus and bible stories.  We were very impressed with the galleries and the quality of the art.







 
This is the Mormon Salt Lake Temple. We were not allowed in as it is a very sacred place for Mormons. It is a granite structure that took 40 years to complete. In behind it is the Tabernacle.






 
The Assembly Hall. We could have gone in here but there was an "Assembly" going on the day we were there. Notice the statue in the square, it has 2 golden "seagulls" on the top and there is a story to this, but let it be said that this is probably the only place that has a monument to seagulls.
 

How do you like this view of fountain, granite walkways and trees? To the side there is a 2 acre field left fallow they call their own little "prairie".. This is only a small part of the more than 6 acres of rooftop on the convention centre which was built in 2000. If you can, take the tour for this place. The convention centre is also the place where the Choir performs every Sunday.
This is a bronze statue depicting the Mormon struggle to get to their destination.  They came in through the Prairies, journeyed through the mountains to Salt Lake to created their Zion.
This shrub  was found in their centre courtyard. It has the sweetest fragrance ever and carried throughout the courtyard. Daphaine, Carol-mackie.

And of course, there is Salt lake, Great Salt Lake that is. It's big and smelly and very salty... more than the ocean, and it is also shrinking. As a matter of fact, there is an abandoned marina building behind us here as the water has now receded about 500 feet away. Average depth of this lake is 13'!
 		  
Salt Lake City, we must say, has been a very friendly place, with just about everyone greeting you with a smile. The tour guides, especially in Temple Square were exceptionally friendly and knowledgeable. Of course, with such great background scenery on three sides...
Monday, April 24, 2006.  Denis has decided to have repair's on his truck done and it will take 5 days for the part to come in.  Lucky for us it is under warranty but it will mean staying in Salt Lake City another week.  I guess that means we will have to make the best of it though it will put us behind schedule a week.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006.  It is 80 degrees today, so we decided to go for a ride up Cottonwood Mountain.  It is only about a 30 minute drive from Salt Lake City.
On the way up to the mountain we came across some beautiful picnic areas by the river.  The areas all had really nice BBQ's some where group area's with bigger BBQ's. The Americans sure do make nice parks. This is the Wasatch National Forest on the way to the top of Cottonwood Mountain.  We got as far as this, on your right and the road was blocked off with snow.
   
Saturday, April 29, 2006.  We have left Salt Lake City.  We have found everyone here to be very nice and helpful.  Everything is so clean here which to me say's residence take pride in their environment.  There seems to be all kinds of shopping here but Denis is not a shopper so I lose out.  He thinks his trouble, with his truck was with his Torque Converter, his transmission specialist in Iowa, Dave at Goerend Brothers Transmissions, 119 N. Main St. St. Lucas, IA 52166) decided not to take a chance and sent down to "Nick at Chick's Transmissions, in Salt Lake City" (a whole new Torque Converter and Transmission in which Nick installed.  All this was done within a week and warranty covered..  Now that is what I call service.
It was really nice to have cable T.V., electricity, hot water (all the time) for the last week but it's time to leave.  p.s. Dee's Family Restaurant had great hamburgers, etc..  We are now headed to Butte, Montana. This will be the longest stretch of driving we will have done on our whole trip.

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