July 21-23

July 21
Today everyone got together at Elsie's and we all went to Promontory Point where the Union and the Pacific Railroads met. There was a reenactment and a they asked a past bishop, Uncle Rick, to stand in to represent the bishop from that momentous day.

Then Barbara's family followed ours out on 15 miles of dirt road to the Spiral Jetty, an earthwork sculpture created in the 1970s at the edge of the Salt Lake. It was cool but we had a great time walking out on the salt flats to the water's edge. The salt had a pink hue due to bacteria blooms. Got some great pictures.

July 22

After church we headed over to Elsie's again for a lasagna dinner and family time. Aunt Lacey has been playing the bagpipes for about a year or two and shared her talent with us. I love my family.

Aunt Lacey is a talented painter as well and painted her bagpipe case with Scottish thistle.

Two adults to rescue Rhys from the kiddie swing.

July 23

Monday we started our trip with Neal. Neal had planned out this leg of the trip. Our first stop was Fossil Butte National Monument in WY. This National Monument does not charge any fee, even if you do not hold a pass.  There is a reason for that. We saw the cheesy movie and fossils at the visitor's center and moved on.

Moving on, I saw some dust in the vast nothingness and focusing in found I was watching a real live cattle drive from afar. That was cool and exactly what I would expect for WY. 

After some more driving we entered a pretty area and went to see Sink's Canyon State Park. Here the water goes underground into cracks that are too small for fish to pass through and up a 1/4 mile downstream at a spring. Except it takes the water 2-4 hours to do it so they think the underground path must be quite complex.  This was a great stop.

It is dumbfounding how much nothing is in Wyoming.  Cows, yes. Pronghorn, yes. People, not so much. I could get a small feeling for what the pioneers must have felt crossing such empty land.  Are next two stops followed pioneer trails, although we were traveling east, not west. We stopped along the Oregon Trail, at the Sixth crossing of the Sweetwater and Martin's Cove, two sites filled with Latter-Day Saint History.

Oregon Trail, still visable

Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater

Martin's Cove at Devil's Gate

Devil's Gate

After this it got to be evening and there was a beautiful sunset. This was taken a little before dusk when 3 deer decided to cross the road while we were doing 75 mph. We spotted the first and Neal did a great job coming to a stop 10 feet from the second that was crossing. The third decided to stay back for awhile. I am glad we had repeatedly prayed for safety on this trip.