The Beehive State

We’ve spent the day in Salt Lake City.  We’d been here before, but only to change planes (as had Mary) so this was our first opportunity to get out and about and explore the city.

Our first destination was easily spotted yesterday afternoon as we arrived.  The Utah State Capitol building was up there on the hill and as you might have gathered from previous posts, we rather like visiting these great buildings.

We arrived around 9 am, expecting to find security and volunteer guides ready and waiting to show us around – but there was none of that.  We had the place to ourselves and though for sure there were people in the building, for quite some time we saw no-one.

So, we made ourselves at home and spent a lovely quite time exploring this wonderful building.

The first thing we noticed was the beehive motif, symbolising the industry of the early pioneers who established the state in the late 19th century.  Of course, once we’d become aware of it, we found it everywhere.

On the elevator floor indicator

On the door of the elevator itself

and on other signs around the building.

There were other, more oblique references too.

One of the reasons we love to explore these state capitols is that often, there’s a collection of artworks on display.  In this case, a selection of works by Utah artists hung on the 4th floor and we spent quite some time enjoying them.  Above is “Morning News” by Alvin Gittins, painted in 1954.

I also liked this one: County Fair 1943, by B.F. Larsen.  I wonder if he had Swedish heritage, because I think there’s quite a bit of the Carl Larsson about it, don’t you?

I think my favourite was The North Face of Zion, by Jim Jones in 2008, probably because the landscape seems so familiar.

There were also some bronzes, including this delightful one of David Abbot Jenkins,  a legend in the world of automobile speed records set at the Bonneville Flats, not so far from here.

And, as we’ve come to expect from these state capitols, there were murals representing significant events in the history of the state.  Here, wearing a white shirt, Brigham Young can be seen, leading the Mormon pioneers from Illinois to Utah, where he sketched the designs for the Temple.

As we explored each floor in turn, we admired some beautiful features.

And puzzled over some notices on the board.  This one made us smile.

Of course, there were always a few more beehives to spot as well.

By this time, things were getting busy and large groups were arriving downstairs, so we felt it was time to move right along.  We left by a different door, discovering that the beautiful sunny morning had clouded over and there was a definite feel of rain in the air.

We headed downhill to the city centre to visit the other principal feature of Salt Lake City and the one we all associate with the place – the Mormon Temple in Temple Square.

Since we’re not members of the church, we couldn’t go inside, but we took a while looking around the visitor centre which was beautifully furnished and had some interesting displays.

We spent a while looking at our family history and then admiring the beautiful gardens which were so well tended.

 

The importance of the family was evident in many of the bronze statues outside and this particular one appealed to me.

But we were getting hungry and lunch seemed to be a good idea, so we headed across the road to Kneaders, a Utah chain of bakeries, where the temptations were many…

but the choice was sensible!

As we walked back to the car, the heavens opened and a swift decision was made to spend the afternoon indoors.  We explored a little of the Legacy Highway, before returning to the hotel late afternoon to catch up on journalling, reading, organising photographs and continuing the family tree research.

And having enjoyed such a fine dinner last night at The Tin Angel, we returned there tonight, to a warm welcome and seats at “our” table.  What a great place we found there!

Tomorrow, another adventure is planned…

(Oh, and by the way, there’s more than one Stonehenge in this area,  in case you’re interested)

Before we move on…

Let’s talk a little about the Bryce Canyon Lodge, where we’ve stayed the last couple of nights.  It was a bit confusing, because the room layout was identical to the lodge at Zion National Park, but there were certain features of this particular place which I thought were interesting.  You see, the “motel rooms” here have been recently refurbished and since this is the only remaining original lodge in this group of parks, it would appear that particular care has been taken to maintain the original character too.

The original lodge building dates back to the 1920’s when the Union Pacific Railroad brought travellers from the station 100 miles away, in open topped charabancs to stay here.  One of our guides spoke of her father, who had laid some of the stones in this main building.

It was she who drew our attention to the optical illusion of the pattern of the shingles on the roof of each building here – giving the impression of an uneven surface, even though it’s actually completely flat and regular.

Some accommodation is in small log cabins here, but when we booked, we were advised that unless the three of us wanted to be very cosy indeed, two motel rooms would be more comfortable (respectable!) so that’s what we reserved.

Our room (identical to Mary’s) was comfortably furnished, if a little dark by our modern day standards.  In fact, we’ve found many of the interiors here in Arizona and Utah to be dark, especially when outside is so bright.  We appreciated the screened windows and porch, which allowed us to let in some air without the fear of assorted wildlife joining us too – of course, those screens make for a darker room too.

Anyway, the decor of the room was based on the original palette, with local inspiration from nature: blue lupine flowers, wood lichen, sage brush, alder bark and Brigham tea. 

The pattern of the custom made carpet was taken from the 1930’s marketing materials and the blanket was a Pendleton woollen, based on the traditional Indian blankets of the time.

It had been especially made for the lodge, with the distinctive label sewn into one corner.

The chairs were made to a pattern taken from Union Pacific Railroad photographs of the lobby

and the wallhanging (sorry, lousy photo) was made to a traditional pattern by master Native American weavers.  I’m not sure I liked the way it was hung and would have preferred to have seen it straight on the wall, perhaps over the bedhead, but there we are, what do I know!?

The painting in the corner was of a Southern Paiute Indian in full ceremonial regalia.  The Paiutes were the original people of this area and we heard quite a lot about them as we travelled around the park.

Of course, in the refurbishment, all modern amenities were added/updated, so there was a coffee machine and a telephone – but no air conditioning, no wifi beyond the lobby and no TV at all.

We enjoyed our stay there at the Bryce Canyon Lodge very much, but tonight, as I sit in a bright and modern Hilton Garden Inn in Salt Lake City, I will admit to feeling happy to have wall to wall wifi, a bright and modern space to relax in and most of all, be at an altitude which makes breathing and sleeping rather more comfortable than the previous week or so.

More from Salt Lake City tomorrow, when we’ve had a chance to explore a little.  I’ll leave you with the surprising sight we spotted from our car window whilst we were stopped at traffic lights in Orem this afternoon.

(insert superlative here)

The advantage of retracing our steps this morning was that we got to stop and take photos on the other side of the road.  However many times we’d photographed those wonderful views, the changing light inspired us to take more.

Whatever did people do before digital cameras made recording all of this so easy?

Spend a fortune on film, I imagine.

So, a few last looks at Zion before we turn left (“continue along this road for 22 miles and then make a left turn”)

Those textures…oh my.

Whilst standing on a flat pavement of layered rock I picked a small piece up.  It resembled one of those wafer biscuits, I thought.

But, created purely of compressed sand, it crumbled away to nothing as soon as I touched it.  How fragile it all is – and yet, here it all stands, millions of years later.

Declaring these sights to be the best yet, we said goodbye to the Checkerboard Mesa and followed the directions through a couple of small Utah towns and turned right to Bryce Canyon, the third and final National Park of this section of our trip.  Again, we’d got reservations for the lodge, so we went straight there, left the car in the parking lot and used the shuttle bus for the rest of the day.

Unlike Grand Canyon and Zion, there didn’t immediately seem much to see here.  The lodge is set amongst trees and there appears to be no hillside or canyon anywhere nearby.  We thought it a good idea to go straight to the visitor centre and get our bearings, maybe get some recommendations for making the best use of our time here.  We learned about the Hoodoos and how they were formed, getting a rough idea of what lie in store just along the way.

However, nothing could quite have prepared us for this.

We were standing on a small promontory, looking out over a vast “terracotta army” of these hoodoos – pillars of sandstone, capped with a harder layer of rock which protects them from erosion.

Some were capped like fairytale castles.  All had begun as arches or windows, before the top part had become weak and caved in.

In some cases, the arches still stood.  Along this pathway, there was a line of them.

In one arch stood a little couple…

As always, the more adventurous souls were picnicking in a precarious spot.

Meanwhile, we were watching the weather close in – thunderstorms forecast this afternoon again and we could hear the occasional distant rumble.

Not wanting to be out in the open, or in a vulnerable spot when the storm passed over, we returned to the lodge and (eventually) checked in.  All of this will still be here tomorrow, when we’ll have a whole day to explore the more hidden locations in the cool of the early morning.

What superlative would you choose, then?

Epic.

Running out of superlatives here (but have still got “awesome” up my sleeve

We love this wide open countryside and I can’t really get a grip of how enormous this land is.  How far away are those distant hills?  When we look at our route and see “left turn in 39 miles”, that’s like saying “turn left at Bristol”…

This was scrubby desert once more, with little sign of habitation here in northern Arizona.  Actually, it’s hard to know what people would do for a living here – it’s not exactly the most hospitable landscape, nor is it productive, it seems.

Fredonia was the first community we came to on our journey today, right on the border with Utah.  That huge butte is a great landmark, isn’t it?

No sooner were we into Utah, than the rock formations started getting interesting.  Yet more different characteristics in the sandstone, here the layers were curved and wave-like.

The surface textures were beautiful, fine layers etched into the rock face with green vegetation setting off the creamy colour well.

By the time we were arriving in Zion National Park the oohs and aaahs were on both sides of the road and the two of us who were not driving the car were finding it hard to know on which side to look.  These monumental rock faces were full of character and every turn in the road revealed a new and different one.

Having booked rooms at the Lodge, we had the privilege of driving right down into the canyon and the nearer we got, the more we were looking forward to getting out there and seeing it all up close.

But by now it was 109F!  Not the best weather to be exploring a rocky canyon, but the shuttle bus made it easy and of course, the buildings were air conditioned, too.

Here, at the Court of the Patriarchs, those three peaks (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) towered over us as we hopped off the bus for fifteen minutes or so, to take photographs and simply take it all in.  In no time, we were getting back on the next shuttle and travelling further into the canyon.  The efficient service made seeing all the best bits incredibly easy in spite of the soaring temperature.

Of course, as ever, getting the scale of these rock faces was difficult.

I took a picture of this arch from the bus stop, thinking it didn’t look that huge, until we drove past and I realised that the whole bus could have parked in there with plenty of room to spare!

And once again, since we’re staying in the park, we were able to watch the sun begin to go down and as everyone else drove out of the park, we walked along to dinner and gazed upwards again.

Having spent a couple of days looking over, across and down, it’s been rather interesting to look up!

What a day.  They really do keep getting better and better.  Will I have to use the “awesome” word tomorrow?

Magnificent.

This morning, we checked out early and began our drive to the other side of the canyon.  As the crow flies, it was a mere 11 miles, but to drive around involved a trip of 220!

We couldn’t resist one last look from this side, though – from Lipan Point, where we were lucky enough to be the only visitors.  For a short ten minutes or so, we had the whole of the Grand Canyon to ourselves – we stood quietly and absorbed the magnificent view which lay before us, reaching the conclusion that to appreciate such places, really, one needs to have peace, quiet and a little bit of space in which to contemplate.

But of course, with those two hundred and odd miles to go, one of us was getting restless.  We bid farewell to this side and set off around the corner and along the other side.

In the space of the next few hours, we experienced yet more stunning landscapes with the scenery changing character around every corner.  For instance, we kept coming across these little canyons – clefts in the earth which were just there in the ground to the side of the road.  Had we but known what interesting things lay in store for us on this particular journey, we’d have approached it in an altogether different way, because to be honest about it, we weren’t particularly looking forward to driving so far to end up so near.

We made a stop in Cameron, about the only place on our journey where we might find a snack of some kind but though we could have purchased any kind of Native American art, snacks seemed to be out of the question. 

Never mind, we weren’t hungry, really.

It wasn’t only the landscape that was changing, either.  The weather was so fickle today – 103F in the shade one minute, 55F in a rainstorm the next – oh, and 89F in between. 

The sky was changing character as fast as the scenery and we were loving every minute.

As always, I have way too many photographs to share, but here are a few highlights…

 

Strangely shaped hills which have been eroded, forming greyish green mounds at the foot of the cliff faces.

Those clear layers of rocks, which stretch for miles in perfectly straight lines.

The sudden sight of two buttes, appearing out of nowhere as we turn a corner and looking remarkably like two castle gates.

Two remarkable bridges over the Colorado River, because of course, to get from one side of the canyon to the other involves crossing the river.  One is for pedestrians only (on the left), the other for traffic.

Way down below, a fairly large raft taking about 25 tourists from Lake Powell downstream towards the canyon.

Over the bridge, the Vermilion cliffs, which looked rather more that colour in real life than they do in my photograph.

The wide open road, through flat countryside with little in sight but the car in front.

The burned remains of a conifer wood, just outside the National Park.

The wonderful sight of the canyon again, this time from the North Rim.

Changing light patterns as we sat with a cold Hefeweizen as the sun began to set.

Oh go on then just one more photograph.

And another, as the sun sinks in the sky and the shadows deepen.

Whilst those around us refuel on pizza and some kind of potnoodle, we decide it’s time to move along to the restaurant, where dinner will taste so much better sitting at a table and eaten with a knife and fork!

The end of another great day here in Arizona, with more stories to tell and hundreds of photographs on our SD cards, even if the best ones are in our heads, as ever.