Golden Spike National Historic Site.

 

The weather finally warmed up enough to actually go out and do some adventuring. I have for a very long time now wanted to see the Spiral Jetty, and due to us being at almost 200% snow pack, I am rather concerned it is going to re-submerge and I am going to miss being able to walk along it.

Now the Spiral Jetty is just a bit past the Golden Spike National Historic Site so we thought, we’re here lets check it out.

The park fee is $7.00 a carload. Not terrible, except there really isn’t that much to do here. Frankly it is a gift shop with a few exhibits, and a half hourly “show”. But it is historical.

This is the Jupiter.

After wandering around for a few minutes, reading all the signs etc. I just could not locate THE golden spike. So I finally asked a ranger. I was informed the actual golden spike is in a Museum somewhere. So I asked why there wasn’t a replica? His response, seriously (kind of laughing even) “well someone would steal it.” Ok Ranger Derp I didn’t think you would put another actual gold spike where it could be stolen, but maybe yall could take 5 seconds to spray paint a gold coat on the spike representing the original placement? yes? no?

Rant aside, the ranger did point out a plaque that was placed on the plank where the original golden spike was located.

And a replica inside the actual museum.

We did not get to see the meeting of the trains show but we did get to watch the Jupiter back up and go across while the ranger explained some of the historical stuff. Including the original, still used to the day whistle signal they use when they come upon a highway 2 long, 1 short, 1 long. We are nerdy enough that we’re going to listen for it next time we are near a train.

It was cool, I like trains I have the young boy nostalgia for trains. I wish that trains did not become obsolete so soon. We spent so much time building the system and much of it is not used anymore.

I also enjoyed seeing some of the history of Midlake Station. Did you know there was a train station in the middle of the Great Salt Lake? I discovered this randomly after my previous hike when I discovered the remains of that original line. Fascinating really the determination and ingenuity of the early 1900’s American.

Overall I would rank this at 5 out of 10 squirrels. It is really in the middle of nowhere, there is a fee, and there really isn’t much to do. Honestly I would say don’t waste your time, unless you plan on continuing on to the Spiral Jetty. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I would not have been happy if I drove all that way just for that.

All was not lost, the day continued as we ventured out to the Spiral Jetty.

The Archives 2009

I have been fighting with Myspace over the last couple of weeks trying to rescue my old blog from it. It has been a really frustrating process but I think I finally managed to free it yay! So for round one, I present to you The Archives: 2009.

• Autumn Drive/Cascade Springs
• Karaoke, Booze, and FIRE!!!!
• Silver Lake
• Yellowstone 2009 Day 4
• Yellowstone 2009 Day 3
• Yellowstone 2009 day 1 and 2
• The Legacy Parkway
• Ogden Canyon
• Antelope Island
• A Stroke Of The Ego

And if you want to read them all in a list click here.

I am slowly digging out the older stuff, I have some of 2008 already posted but will wait until I complete the collection before I publish a list.

Evening Stroll Down The Ogden River Trail.

 

We were out for a family event in Ogden and while there I noticed how high and fast the Ogden River was flowing, so I decided to go for a walk. I was joined by a few people in the family who agreed it would be nice..

Under Bridge Rapid

  Nobody could capture this in a picture, but this branch was dipping into the river, being pushed downstream and out and back again. Like an oar being rowed.

  Next the the river sits the Ogden Rodeo Grounds and this building with a series of interesting murals painted on the backside. Here are a couple of my favorites.

 

Here you can see the swollen levels of the river.

Other than the constant heart attack it is to have kids around such a raging river, they can be darned cute sometimes.

Reached a section of rapids and played with some long exposure shots. 

Once you get passed the Rodeo Grounds and a few private residents the trail gets kind of pretty in and of itself. At this point we decided to turn back towards home, the kids were getting restless and it looked like rain.

Big Ol Tree

I loved this unidentified tree. (mind you I have an active imagination) but I thought it resembled a witch hunched over and reaching into the river.

Nice clouds.

Considering how much the area has been ravaged by mans hand, it is still a nice stroll. Next time we are in the area we are going to take the trail the other direction towards the canyon. It’s closer to the road, but who knows what we might find.

As someone who loves nature, and kind of resents mans desire to destroy it, I actually rather liked this trail, even though the hand of man is strong in the area. I think Ogden is doing really well in attempting to balance what the people of Ogden's past have done, and returning the river to it’s original beauty.

Final Squirrel Rating: 7. It is a super easy paved trail, right next to the city, but still feels natural enough that it is enjoyable.

The Great Salt Lake

 

I always get restless this time of year, it starts feeling warm, and I want to go out and hike, but there's still snow up in the mountains. So I try to find naturey things to do lower in the valley.

Supposedly, somewhere on the shores of The Great Salt Lake sits a random green sphere. This was what brought me out to the lake. Unfortunately, I never did find this sphere but I still got in a good approximately 2 mile hike.

As I said I was looking for this sphere which I kind of knew the general area it should be, a little south of the Saltaire. There is a frontage rd. next to i80 that gives you opportunity to get to the lake… ish. it is a rather small, shoulder less road that has those little binocular signs indicating a scenic area, right next to signs saying no parking next 2 miles. ??? The first pullout available was rather crowded. I would have liked to take photos here, but apparently this is a rather popular photographic area as there were at least 12 people taking pictures. So we moved on to the next one. There was a small dirt road pullout that indicated it was some sort of nature research trail. Again, it was fenced off, but was easy to get through.

This is the first site I wanted to see. An old abandoned train and unknown building. I will return to this.

One of the interesting things about the Great Salt Lake is that its water levels fluctuate drastically. We are currently in a low levels cycle. It was a mile from where we parked to the shore, yet where we parked is is obvious that that was shoreline during high levels.

It took me a while to determine what I was looking at, but at this point I decided it was once an old pier?

It was a little spongy here, so we decided to head back towards the what appears to be man created raised area.

I love that there are signs of river beds

Yep still convinced this was once a pier.

And then we found this… it seems there was a pumping station of some sort?

 

The unknown structure narrowed and heightened.

UPDATE 3/18/11: A friend informs me this was one a railroad trestle that crossed the lake called the Lucin Cutoff.

Another interesting thing about The Great Salt Lake is that, even though it is a rather large lake, it is really rather shallow. Averaging at about 13 feet deep. Due to this it’s shores are kind of… skewompous.

Did you know that the Great Salt Lake is the 4th largest terminal lake? A terminal lake has inlets, but no outlets. Water only decreases due to evaporation, which is why it is so salty. Supposedly, a human can float on the surface, although I have never tried this.

   End of the line, with a salty foam.

 

Landis found a walking stick! Which apparently was good enough that he kept it.

 

I decided that the man made raised path must have originally been a marina, during high waters anyway.

Random letter?

Upon returning to the car we noticed the throng of photographers had left the train, so even though I had lost prime lighting I decided to head over there as well.

“Temple Of The Birds” Totally unofficial title of this unknown building but I think it fits quite well. Judging by what I saw on my hike out to the shore, I think this was originally some sort of pumping station. It is now home to more graffiti than building, but it is still rather interesting.

I hate graffiti. I really do, however, I found most of the graffiti at this location to be rather interesting.

All and all, even though I never found what I was looking for, I had a good time, and I enjoyed my first spring hike of the year.

My goal this year is to hit some of the more out of the way little known places. So look forward to that, and feel free to poke me if I fail at this goal.

Final result: 9 out of 10 Squirrels. Only losing 1 squirrel due to having to crawl through a fence. (and maybe a slight disappointment on not finding my “Easter egg”.) Other than that, it was a very easy hike, great one to do during the early spring time when you want to do some nature. Plus there is some cool stuff to see.