 |
| Utah State Capitol |
 |
| View from Capitol |
Our next stop was to tour the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. This one
is on a hill with a great view of the city and mountains from the top of the
steps. The inside is very pretty with a combination of white/grey marble, murals
and subtle paint. The House and Senate chambers have classic wooden desks with
nice subtle decorating. Another very nice Capitol.
 |
| Utah State Capitol Rotunda |
We had planned on going to Timpanogos Cave NM
next but it was closed due to the trail to the cave being washed out. We'll
keep it on the list for another time. This freed up a day to do chores which
ended up filling the day so it worked out well.
 |
| Utah State Capitol House Chamber |
We moved on to the east side of the state and made Vernal,
UT our base for a week. The drive from Provo up Provo Canyon
(Hwy 189) and then east on US 40 was yet another beautiful drive in Utah. This state is,
arguably (you have to say that, right?), the most beautiful state of the
contiguous forty-eight.
The first visit near Vernal was to
Dinosaur National Monument.
The main attraction at this site is the
Quarry Exhibit Hall where they have
built a large building over a rock wall with 1,500 embedded fossils. You walk
along the wall and marvel at the size and number of bones. There are both electronic
aids
 |
| Fossil wall |
 |
| Fossil wall |
 |
| Sound of Silence Trail |
 |
| Sound of Silence Trail view |
and paper maps to identify what type of dinosaur to which a particular
bone, or set of bones, belonged. There are also displays about the discovery of the bones, the archaeological digs, and where full dinosaur skeletons, removed
from the area, are being displayed around the world. This is a very impressive place.
Additionally there is an auto tour to some petroglyphs and other things with
trails to hike along the way.
 |
| Utah Field House - Diplodocus |
There is another great attraction that is right in Vernal.
It is the
Utah Field House of Natural History. This museum has great exhibits
of fossils with good explanations for each. There is a nice film about archaeological digs in the area. There is a fun dinosaur garden
outside with a lot of life size prehistoric animals. This is a wonderful place
for a cheap price.
 |
| Utah Field House - Stegosaurus |
 |
| Utah Field House - Dolichorhinus |
Our next day trip was to the
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area which is about an hour north of Vernal. The recreation area
runs north into
Wyoming along the
Green River which has a dam to create a very long, narrow
reservoir. We spent about three hours along the southern (Utah) part of the
recreation area seeing Red Canyon, the Sheep Creek Geological Loop and then
over to the dam. This is a beautiful area and the drive from Vernal on US 191
is pretty also.
 |
| Flaming Gorge Rec Area - Red Canyon |
 |
Flaming Gorge Rec Area - Sheep
Creek Geological Loop |
 |
Flaming Gorge Rec Area - Sheep
Creek Geological Loop |
 |
Flaming Gorge Rec Area - Sheep
Creek Overlook |
We took a fairly short drive from Vernal to the McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs. There is an unimproved trail, fairly tough, to some 1500 year old petroglyphs.
 |
| Ancient Art at McConkie Ranch |
 |
| Ancient Art at McConkie Ranch |
 |
| Ancient Art at McConkie Ranch |
No comments:
Post a Comment