Panguitch to Park City (Park City, Utah)

Our last week in Panguitch was busy.  I used up a day putting the finishing touches on the garage and the historical Podunk building. They're done!!!! I also spent a couple days on a unique task.  I was busy painting benches on hiking trails.  I loaded a pack with a few tools then I hiked three different trails with a bucket of paint in one hand and another paint bucket with water and my brushes in the other hand.  I totaled about  15 hours over two days hiking trails and painting benches.  It was fun and satisfying.  We also devoted 3 days to cleaning and doing preventative maintenance tasks related to camper stuff.

Tuesday evening, Aug. 14th, we went to a volunteer appreciation picnic.  It was very pleasant and several people said nice things about us.  That sums up our two months of volunteering.  It's a great way to get to know a specific area, a cheap way to stay in a cooler climate and very rewarding. 

But there was another bonus as well. During the last couple of weeks I found myself spending some quality time with a couple of young girls.  They both were blond, big smiles, about a hundred pounds, nice tails..... yep two great Golden Retrievers! Most mornings when I left the camper with the boys for their morning walk the girls would come bounding out of their yard to greet us and join us for our walk. Obviously one of us must be a chick magnet.  We'd walk around town for 30-45 minutes and the girls would stay with us. We drew a fair amount of attention coupled with comical comments.  Love the dogs!

So we departed Panguitch on Sunday morning, Aug 20th.  We drove to the Jordanelle State Park which is located east of Park City, UT where we planned to spend 4 nights.  But we ran into a problem.  As we approached the state park we found the road blocked by police.  They explained that there had been a 500 acre wildfire adjacent to the state park, and the greater area, including the park, had been evacuated.  The Officer told us the situation would be evaluated and that a decision would be made at 4pm as to whether campers would be allowed back in the State Park that evening. He added he didn't think it would happen.  It was only around 1:00pm.  Never having been in the area, and not really knowing where to go to hang out with our 39' camper, we decided to book another campground for the evening.  Later we learned that they did open the park that evening. 

Monday morning we moved to our site in the state park. What a great place on a beautiful reservoir.

.

View from Site 18

Monday afternoon we visited the Utah Olympic Park. 

This was the site of some of the events for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City.  Mighty interesting.  The facilities included  a museum,

a ski jump practice pool for future Olympians (adults and children),



Future gold medalists

Kids ramp

Adult ramps

a rope adventure course,

and a bobsled run where for $60pp you can get a ride with a professional driver (we passed).

Ok, we didn't do the ropes course either.  One thing I did do though was let Debbie  force me into one those silly stick your head in the hole photos!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon strolling Historic Park City.  Now here's a charming town supporting the local skiing resorts and the beautiful surrounding area. Lots of cute homes with flower filled gardens.  Very cool!

Tuesday we made our way to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument.

This monument area is amidst dramatic mountain peaks and canyons.

To reach the cave you have to hike 1.5 miles of paved trail with 1100 feet of elevation gain. The views are superb.

 

We've done a couple caves previously but we thought this one was unique.  The tour  actually included 3 connected caves, Hanson Cave,

Middle Cave,

and then the highlight Timpanogos.

The total length of the three caves is about 1/3 mile.  It's about 45 degrees, quite narrow, sometimes short (even for those of average height), twisting and the formations were normally within arms reach.

It might be described as an intimate cave. The tour, conducted by a park ranger, lasted about an hour.  It was great!  We then walked the 1.5 miles down the mountain.

The trip home was on a NARROW, TWISTING scenic drive called the Alpine Loop.  The truck was certainly not the best vehicle for this drive but we survived.  I don't think Debbie wanted to release her grip on the door handle to take a picture! Stopped at KFC, got home, walked the dogs and chilled. 

If you happened to notice the dates above, you can tell our blog is way behind.  Full days of sightseeing and limited to no internet access have cramped our blogging style.  We will have internet for the next week and hopefully get caught up.  We have a few more days in Park City to write about, 4 days in Grand Teton National Park, and yesterday we arrived in West Yellowstone.  So please check back!