The Golden Spike

-
Short post. Today was a travel day. Idaho Falls to North Salt Lake City. With one stop to see the Golden Spike Monument in Prometory, UT (The pioneers were a big part of the 3rd grade curriculum this year, so Sydney was excited about this)

They had a replica of the spike (real one is in a Museum at Stanford, and apparently there is an identical one at the Cal. Railroad Museum in Sacramento? Never noticed it if so...)

The original tracks from 1869 stopped being used in 1904 when a bridge (later a causeway) was built across the lake, and they were all torn up and used for the war effort in 1942, soneverythingbhere are replicas, but there's a nice original (restored) monument at least...

And a little visitor center showing (among much else) the hand-hewn lumber used by the Union Pacific (from the east, where there were fewer trees, versus the identical mill-hewn ties from the Sierra Nevadas used by the Central Pacific)

The difference of which can also be seen (in replica) with the (replica) last tie at the actual site (no golden spike though)


And the two (replica) locomotives, which actually operate - they had active fires and are returned to the engine house each day at 4pm)

Plus....one final stamp for our books.

Tomorrow was supposed to be Timpanagos Cave NM, but we dropped the ball there and apparently you need reservations ahead of time for the (now sold out) tour, so we will explore SLC instead. Found a couple of things for the kids downtown.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Here we go....

-
Image
Sabbatical 2018! 2+ Years of planning coming down to this:  The Route 3000 or so miles, 26 or so days. 8 National Parks, 1 National monument. More Below: The Trailer Lisa, Sydney (9), Caitlin (6) and I will be together in this: Its a 2018 Jayco 17XFD Hybrid. 3 Queen beds in a 17-foot box that expands to 25 feet end-to-end with the beds out. But weighs just 3500 pounds dry. Full Kitchen, Full Bathroom, A/C, heat, refrigerator, and space for everyone. Route Details We set off June 2 : From Home: 2 nights in Sequoia NP 1 night in Barstow (just to break up the drive) 2 nights in Lake Mead / Las Vegas A quick stop in Zion NP  2 nights in Bryce Canyon NP A quick stop in Capitol Reef NP  4 nights in Moab  Arches NP, Canyonland NP, Colorado river rafting, Jenny & Geo! 2 nights at Dinosaur NM 2 Nights in Grand Teton NP 5 Nights in Yellowstone NP  With one night being in a hotel in Gardiner, MT - With Grandma & Grandpa...
Read more

Finally Home!

-
Image
We're home! It was a great trip, everyone loved it, but everyone is also very glad to be back. Comfortable beds, good coffee, and furry friends that apparently missed us! We ended up driving a little over 4000 miles: And according to our RV fridge tracker, We visited: 9 National Parks 3 National Monuments 2 National Recreation Areas 1 National Historic Site 1 Ghost town And Jackson :-) And we stayed in 6 States (Including 4 new ones for our family) Favorites for the trip: Jeff - Yellowstone by far. It impressed beyond my wildest expectations.  Lisa - Arches NP - Delicate Arch hike and the less-crowded parts of Yellowstone. Sydney - Las Vegas, Bryce Canyon and and Crystal Cave Caitlin - Sequoia, Yellowstone, and the SLC "Space Museum" (planetarium...aka the most recent thing 😆) Now it's a couple of weeks of downtime and we're off again - 3 nights in Ft. Bragg at the end of the month #sabbaticalsummer. Thanks for following along!
Read more