Great Salt Lake Ogden Utah

After leaving Amarillo, Texas and on our way to Colorado Springs, Colorado we stopped in New Mexico at the Capulin Volcano National Monument.  This should have been either included in our Amarillo, Texas or our Colorado Springs, Colorado blogs, but I sort of forgot about it.  So I will just stick it into our Utah blog.

The last time it erupted was over sixty thousand years ago, so we felt pretty safe that it would not blow while we were there.  The lava cone that is left jets over one thousand three hundred feet in to the air with an elevation of eight thousand one hundred and eighty two feet above sea level.

We climbed to the top and then into the bottom of the cone.  The only thing we did not do is walk the circumference of the cone, which is one mile around.

Capulin Volcano National Monument.

Chloe, Courtney, Avery, Ethan, Ian, and Tia at Capulin Volcano National Monument.

A view from the top of the cone.

Tia, Chloe, Courtney, and Misty climbing the trail to the rim.

Tia, Avery, Courtney, Chloe, Ethan, and Ian sitting on the rim of the volcano.

Looking down into the cone of the volcano.

Courtney, Ian, Avery, Ethan, Chloe, and Tia standing in the bottom of the cone.

Looking out of the cone while inside the volcano.

It only costs seven dollars to get into the park and if you have an National Parks Access Pass then it is free.  The Access Pass is eighty dollars a year, but well worth it if you plan on visiting National Parks and Monuments.

Now that we are done with New Mexico and its volcano, we can talk about Utah and one of its biggest attractions, the Great Salt Lake that is to the west of Ogden, UT. 

We actually went to Antelope Island State Park which is one out of seventeen islands in the Great Salt Lake.  If you are interested in them here is an article you can read all about the islands of Great Salt Lake.

Ethan, Ian, Avery, Tia, Brinleigh, Courtney, and Chloe at Antelope Island.

We had two local guides who were Jodi and Brinleigh Shupp which was nice since they could tell us a lot about the island or at least Jodi could.

Avery, Brinleigh, Tia, Jodi, Chloe, Courtney, Ian, and Ethan.

The Wasatch Mountains in the background.

The day we were there the No-See_ums had just hatched, so the closer you got to the water, the more they would swarm and bite you.  When I was taking the above picture, I noticed that the back of my neck and head was starting to sting.  It did not take me long to figure out that they were feasting on me.

As we drove closer to the water down near the beach, I got out to take the below pantographic shot of the lake and could hardly stand there the thirty seconds it took to scan the lake for the picture.  The longer I stood there the worse the pain got.

Needless to say, any more pictures taken close to the water were taken through the windows of the van.  It wasn't until we drove over to the Fielding Garr Ranch that they let up and we would get out of the van.

The Great Salt Lake.

Over at the Fielding Garr Ranch is where we got to tour the farm yard, see many more bison, and see how they lived on the island many years ago.

A gentleman who was there to help answer questions asked the kids if they knew what a buffalo was really called?  They knew the answer, but just to make sure they never forgot the gentleman told a joke that will help them remember their true name. 

"What did the mother buffalo say to her son while he was leaving for college?  Bye Son!"  Funny, right?!?

A bird house behind the Visitors Center.

Bison in the field at the Fielding Garr Ranch.

Tools used at the ranch.

Sheep sheering station where they sheered the sheep.

The conveyor belt used to move the wool that was sheered off the sheep.

The kids trying there hands at lassoing.

Still trying to lasso.

While driving back to the other side of the island a lone coyote was standing in the road blocking traffic.  We are not sure of what he or she was doing, but we saw a ranger coming down the road, so knew the situation would be handled soon.

Coyote in the road.

Close up of coyote in the road.

One of the main reasons we went to Utah was to visit our friends I went to high school with back in West Virginia.  It was also for me to get in a trout fishing trip with my friend John Shupp.

John Shupp, a very good friend.

A nice trout stream in the Webber Canyon in Utah.

John is one of those guys who always seems to come out on top of every situation you find yourself in with him.  As kids growing up it always seemed to be that way.

He takes me trout fishing and tells me the contests are 1. First Fish Caught, 2. Largest Fish Caught, and 3. Most Fish Caught.  Well not long after we start to fish that morning he catches a nice brown trout, so he has the first contest win in the bag.

John with a nice brown trout.

I start to catch brown trout too and around my third or forth fish I catch a nice 15 1/2 brown.  So I'm holding the titles of biggest fish and most caught so far.

My 15 1/2 inch brown trout.

So after fishing all day we come to a bridge and John casts in and catches his 11th trout, which ties us up for the number caught that day.  I cast in and catch a trout to pull a head by one.  He cast in again and catches his 12th trout to tie me again.  I cast in and catch another trout to pull a head by one again.  This keeps going on for five trout in a row until I am at 16 and John is at 15 fish for the day.

We both go down stream and split up and I catch three more brown trout to get to number 19 while John catches two more trout and is now at 17 trout for the day.

We leave that spot and had over to one last stream to fish and I have no luck at all.  It is going to be dark here in about fifteen minutes and I'm still remembering who I am with and how he always pulls it out at the very end.  John walks under a bridge where we are fishing and I see him catch another trout.  Now he is at 18 fish.  He then steps out of sight around the bridge pillar and is fishing the other side.

I was thinking to myself that he will probably catch one or two more with one of them being over 15 1/2 inches long.  It is not more than a minute later here comes John with a grin from ear to ear holding a really nice brown trout he just caught.  As soon as I got my hands on it, I knew it was bigger than my 15 1/2 inch trout and in fact it was 17 1/4 inches long.

John with his contest winning 17 1/4 inch brown trout.

So in typical John Shupp fashion, he won First Caught and Largest Fish Caught, and tied me for Most Fish Caught, so I really did not win anything.  But I would do it again with the same results any day of the week because it was a great day of fishing spent with one of the best people in the world who I am lucky enough to have as a friend.  Oh, just so my brother Bill knows, John said that I am his best friend now, more so than Bill.  Sorry Bill!

John Shupp and me fishing in Utah.

I told John later on that we needed to add the category of the Best Quality Fish Caught, because I would have won that for sure.

One of the first nice brown trout I caught the day I was fishing in Utah.

A sink full of brown trout that we had for dinner.

Well I think this is enough for this blog of our adventures in Utah, but there will be more on Utah since we did much more.  So if you liked this one, be sure to read our next blog on Utah.

We are so blessed to be able to travel America and see all that we get to see.  God has been good to us and we can not sing His praises enough.

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God bless and be safe!

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...


23 states visited so far.