Olympic Park in Park City, Utah

Linda from Linda's Lens just came back from a ski trip to Salt Lake City where she visited one of the Olympic sites and got me thinking about our own visit to the area in 2009.  She visited the Cauldron Park, but we took in a tour of  Olympic Park in Park City.  During the 2002 Olympics it served as a venue for ski jumping, nordic combined, bobsled, skeleton and luge. Admission to the self-guided tour of the museum is free!

During the summer, ski jumpers work on technique by landing on plastic runways in landing zones. Freestyle aerialists practice their twists and jumps and land in the park's 750,000-gallon training pool.  When they hit the water the pool fills with air that pushes them back up.  The highest of the four primary kickers can launch the athletes nearly 70 feet in the air, allowing the aerialists to perform twists and flips.  We hung out and watched for awhile, it was incredibly cool!

The indoor museum brought back a lot of memories of the games.  I tried to convince Wayne to have a seat in the old bobsled that was on display, but he insisted it was my turn to humiliate myself.  It was surprisingly difficult to climb in and out of, but while seated I did get to enjoy the Olympic related comics framed on the wall. If you want to ride in a bobsled, come for a visit in the winter and they will accommodate you in something more modern!

We watched a lot of figure skating during the 2002 Olympics because Katrina was still skating at that time. Sarah Hughes was the gold medal winner and Katrina got to meet and skate with her at the ice arena in Crystal Lake, Illinois in 2005. Sarah gave tips to all the Marshall's Skatefest participants on improving their skills and then everyone received a hand autographed poster. 

 

My favorite item on display was the white bison.  It was decoupaged with newspaper articles from the Olympics and signed by the athletes.  I picked out Brian Boitano's name right away!  Next time we're in the Salt Lake City area we'll have to visit another of the venues, and it's on my travel list to hit other Olympic towns as well.

Petroglyph Love, Moab 2009

Mark and Bobbie from Box Canyon Blog are in Moab right now, and that has me thinking of our short time there in 2009. Of all the places we've been it's the one that I can't wait for us to get back to.  We were only there for a few days, and it's a place that grew on me quickly.

Unfortunately I'm not as poetic as Mark, if you want to read about the throes of ecstasy seeing all that red rock can bring, head on over to his blog and see it through his eyes.  All I know is before we left I was in Love with a capital L, and I've spent every white midwest winter since then dreaming of snow drifting across that Entrada and Navajo Sandstone.

I wrote about our trip and my dreaming of returning in another post, but I thought I'd take the time to revisit the topic and go into a little depth about a new obsession that our trip awakened besides the red rock...petroglyphs.

When we stopped into the Moab visitor center a lovely lady told us we should check out some of the area petroglyphs and gave us a brochure detailing how to find them. Petroglyphs are pecked into or incised on stone walls, and pictographs were painted on stone. We haven't seen any pictographs yet, but certainly enjoyed the petroglyphs. If you want to know a little more about the rock art and the people who made it, go here.

 We started with the 125 foot panel on Potash Road.  The black patina on these sandstone cliffs is especially good for petroglyphs and the images represent a wide variety of topics from  hunting to ceremonial practices to domestic life.  Dating the rock art is difficult, but most of the rock art in the area is from multiple periods. The figures seemed so alien, but I've since done some homework and they make sense when you know the history.

What we thought looked like aliens is probably Fremont warriors with shields wearing ear bobs that hang down to their shoulders and possibly a headdress.

This one really confused me with all the lines, but after reading about the giant desert centipedes that live in the region it all clicked. The small figure in the middle toward the bottom looks like an archer chasing a big horn sheep.

This one was a little more obviously a hunting scene, including archers, big horn sheep and a rather large bear!

Looks like a scorpion on the bottom left, and some type of bird figure on the far right.  The figures holding hands are perhaps women dancing. 

We were so enthralled by these images from the past that we also searched out the boulder with the birthing scene. It took us awhile to find, but I was glad that we didn't give up!

There is some debate as to whether it really is a birthing scene or just an enlarged vulva meant to depict fertility, but either way it is still a unique representation. Ranger Kathryn's blog, which I found this morning, says a breech birth...hmmm, makes sense!  There are a variety of images on the boulder. As for the image below...I still don't have a clue!  Witch on a broomstick since it's almost Halloween?  Maybe someone can help me out!

There is only one petroglyph site open to the public in Wisconsin at Roche-a-Cri State Park. I meant to get there this year but I guess it will have to wait until next year because it's a 3 hour drive from here and there is a lot more to see in the area so I'll want to make it a camping trip.

I also read a couple of great books by Craig Childs that fueled my new obsession about ancient southwestern culture.  I may not be as obsessed as he is...but I did get some great ideas for future trips, including a desire to go visit Chaco Culture. When you're traveling you just never know where your adventures will really end up taking you.  I know I got a lot more out of our trip to Moab than I had planned on!

A Christmas Dream

All month long I've been thinking of Moab, Utah more than I've been thinking of Christmas. We visited Moab in the fall of 2009 and all last winter I'd close my eyes and daydream about all that red rock! We were only there a few days as part of our big loop through South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah, but it left a big impression on me. It's the only place I've ever visited that I felt like I only scratched the surface and that there is so much more to experience than I could possibly do in a single "vacation".

North Window

We stayed at Moab Valley RV Resort and really liked their facility. It is a security gated facility with a pool and a huge hot tub, an efficient staff and nice laundry facilities. The spots were close together but not tight or hard to get into. It's located 2 miles north of the center of Moab and 2 miles south of the entrance to Arches National Park and was perfect for all our day trips. We went into Arches a couple of times and really enjoyed hiking to the different formations, and even went back into the park at night to enjoy the incredible view of the stars.

My best memory is of getting up before sunrise and driving the truck by myself out to Arches. There were some clouds as the sun was coming up and I was certain that I wasn't going to get any of that glorious early light, but luck was with me and the clouds broke for a few minutes so that I could snap a couple of shots with the moody sky making the pictures even better.

Tower of Babel

Sheep Rock

We also drove out to Canyonlands National Park and did some exploring of the Island in the Sky District. We stopped at a few different areas and were happy that we had also checked out the visitor's center so that we knew a kangaroo rat when we saw one! Never thought a rat could be so cute!

As we peered into the canyon we noticed some jeeps down there and discovered that you could rent them locally and take them down into the canyon. We decided that was our plan for the following day, but not before taking that final stroll out to Mesa Arch, which I enjoyed photographing while Wayne enjoyed scooting out to the edge and looking down, inspiring other brave souls to join him.

Mesa Arch

When we returned to Canyonlands with our jeep we had quite a hair-rising ride down Shafer Road into the canyon.

It wasn't until we made it to the bottom that Wayne informed me he was certain we'd never make it!

 Once safely down we bumped our way along White Rim Road and enjoyed the scenery. We were in awe of the power of wind, water and uplift evident around us, but soon found the bumpiness tiresome and made our way out to Potash Road, relieved that we wouldn't have to go back up that set of switchbacks!


Potash Road is the site of some of the area's many petroglyphs. We took time to visit the panels there, and were also treated with an opportunity to chat with some rock climbers. The Moab Visitor's Center also recommended we search out the "birthing scene" which is depicted on a boulder and was a little more challenging to find, but well worth the effort. I can't wait to return and find more Native American rock art in the area, especially The Great Gallery in the Horseshoe Canyon Unit of Canyonlands.

So, as I scraped ice off my windshield on this chilly morning the day after Christmas, my thoughts were in Moab, where I hope the locals were treated to a dusting of snow on all that marvelous red rock. I'm hoping that one Christmas we'll be there with them, hiking one of the many trails through the Colorado Plateau. Happy Holidays, Everyone, wherever you happen to be!