This trip had something for everyone: Trains and Dams for Nancy and Rockets and Fossils for Tim. It made for a fun trip.
GOLDEN SPIKE NHS
This year marks the 150th Anniversary of the completion of the trans-continental railroad so we headed for Promontory, Utah to see a re-enactment of the Golden Spike ceremony.
We watched the reproductions of the original Central Pacific wood-burning Jupiter and the Union Pacific coal-burning Engine 119 come face-to-face at Promontory, UT.
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| Meeting of the UP and the CP Railroads, Promontory, Utah |
The Jupiter carried California Governor Leland Stanford and Engine 119 carried Union Pacific Vice President Thomas Durant who were going to complete the construction of the rail line.
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| Stanford and Durant Shake Hands. Note Laurelwood Tie and Silver-Headed Maul |
The story told of the original ceremony is that both Stanford and Durant swung and missed the spike but that's a condensed and incomplete story. The actual events, including the speeches, were re-enacted for us.
The ceremony involved a polished laurelwood railroad tie with four pre-drilled holes for four ceremonial spikes. California provided the 17.6 caret Golden Spike as well as another golden spike of lower quality. The state of Nevada provided a silver spike and Arizona provided a spike made of a combination of gold, silver, and steel. These were gently tapped in with a silver-headed maul.
The real railroad tie had a final spike connected to the telegraph that was alerting the nation to the completion and it was this final spike that both men missed.
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| With A Workman's Maul, Both Men Missed the Real Spike |
Today, the Golden Spike, Nevada's Silver Spike, and the Silver Maul are on display at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center. The Arizona Spike is on display at the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The second gold spike's location is unknown, but it may well have been lost in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.
NORTHROP-GRUMMAN INNOVATIONS CENTER ROCKET DISPLAY
Just a few miles down the back road from the Golden Spike site is a vivid reminder that only one hundred years after the completion of the trans-continental railroad, an American walked on the moon. The Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center is certainly the most impressive display of giant space rockets ever assembled, but the rocket display in northern Utah is a history of the huge technological advances made since the moon mission.
Northrop-Grumman bought its way into the rocket business less than a year ago with the purchase of a company that itself resulted from several purchases, mergers, and name changes. But, honestly, it only takes a few moments walking around the display to realize that these are all Thiokol rockets.
From the 6-foot long propulsion system for the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile to the 150-foot solid rocket booster (SRB) for the Space Shuttle, these rockets document solid-fuel development. Other items displayed here include the solid-fuel boosters for the Minuteman, the Trident, and the Polaris missiles.
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| Shuttle Booster Horizontal in Back, Trident Rocket in Front, and Minuteman Missile Hiding Behind the Trident. |
Later, we discovered that we had just missed a static fire test of the new OmegA, a launch vehicle for commercial and national security satellites. The test was conducted the week before our visit and all of their tests are open for public viewing.
ANTELOPE ISLAND
We have driven by the Great Salt Lake repeatedly since first moving west, but other than glimpses from the highway, we've never actually visited there until this trip. We drove over the causeway to Antelope Island, named after the native pronghorn that were assumed to be a species of antelope (they aren't).
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| Across the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island Over Causeway |
FOSSIL BUTTE NATIONAL MONUMENT
The drive to Fossil Butte took us through beautiful Logan, UT, home of Utah State University, and up US-89 to Bear Lake. This lake is Utah and Idaho's Lake Tahoe. Like Tahoe, Bear Lake straddles two states and is noted for its turquoise-blue color that gives it its nickname as the "Caribbean of the Rockies."
A little farther down the road in Wyoming, Fossil Butte National Monument preserves the Fossil Lake portion of the Green River Formation (there were two other larger lakes that are outside the monument). This formation includes a series of fossil beds that span 5 million years with perhaps the largest collection of Eocene fossil fish and plant leaves in the world.
Fossils from this area are abundant and you've probable seen samples of the small fish fossils embedded in sandstone or lime muds that are undoubtedly from the Green River Formation. My own specimen is pictured below.
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| A nice example of Knightia - the most common fish of the Eocene |
FLAMING GORGE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA AND DAM
From Fossil Butte we drove south into the Flaming Gorge of the Green River, named that by John Wesley Powell due to the sandstone cliffs.
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| Flaming Gorge Cliffs of the not-so-Green River Reservoir |
DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT
Farther south and just east of Vernal, UT, is the Dinosaur Monument Visitors' Center. A shuttle took us to the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall built to protect the last part of the original Carnegie Dinosaur Quarry. It had been partially excavated to display the "Wall of Bones," some 1500 specimens including a nearly complete Camarasaurus.
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| Quarry Visitors' Center (built into hillside) |
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| Inside Quarry Visitors' Center and the Wall of Bones |
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| A Complete Camarasaurus is Embedded in the Rock - Some Assembly Required (see Inset) |
We both grew up with Dippy, the Diplocaudus carnegii, as part of our lives. That one is the original dinosaur on display at the Pittsburgh museum and is considered by many to be the most famous dinosaur in the world thanks to Carnegie's donation of reproductions to museums world-wide, including ones in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Munich, early in the 20th century. In 1957 a reproduction was donated to the Field House of Natural History just down the road in Vernal UT.
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| Nancy Standing Beneath Vernal's Copy of the Original Dippy |
COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT
Heading westward from Grand Junction, you cross the Colorado River and come to "the Monument," as locals call it. This is your first indication that you are on the Colorado Plateau with its many weathered sedimentary rocks and sandstone formations. The existence of the monument east of Grand Junction is not at all obvious. There is absolutely nothing that can be seen from the road that indicates just how dramatic a place it is.
Monument Canyon, which extends through the entire park, is noted for its Independence Monument and from Rim Rock Drive you can see all the way back to Grand Junction.
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| Monument Canyon Looking Back to Grand Junction - Independence Tower in the Middle |
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| Colorful Colorado |
SAN RAFAEL "NATIONAL PARK"
There has been growing support to give National Park status to the Colorado National Monument--even Ken Burns is on board with this--but, honestly, I-70 west of the Green River to Salina, Utah should be first.
Geographically, the 75 mile long San Rafael Reef would mark the eastern boundary of this park that is just northeast of Capital Reef National Park. I-70 enters the San Rafael Swell via a cut through the reef.
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| Trucker Entering San Rafael Reef Cut |
The San Rafael Swell off I-70 has some memorable outcroppings but the most amazing part is southwest off I-70 on UT-24 heading toward Capital Reef National Park. This area of the San Rafael Swell has some of the most other-worldly terrain on earth.
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| UT-24 From An Earlier Trip |
Castle Valley extends north from I-70 and is a rough and scenic area that also has historical interest. Known as Outlaw Country, it provided refuge to Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch. It also leads to the northern route of the Old Spanish Trail. The best views of this area are from the Ghost Rock area.
The story goes that early cowboys saw the tops of these peeking up through the morning fog in the distance and gave them the name.
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| Ghost Rocks |
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| Outlaw Country |
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| Butch Cassidy Country |
This is what a national park looks like.
WILDLIFE
We had a good number of animal sightings on this trip.
Of course, there were the usual wild horses, wild burros, and pronghorn. We saw the herd of bison on Antelope Island and a herd of Bighorn Sheep in Flaming Gorge as well as a flock of turkey vultures hovering over the dam itself.
We were surprised at the number of roadkill deer we saw in Utah. Apparently UDOT just leaves them at the side of the road and the ravens didn't even seem to be interested in the rotting corpses. Very strange.
What we didn't see was the huge number of roadkill jackrabbits we saw on our first trip on US-50 in Nevada. Perhaps NDOT is on the job. We did see two though.
Both were recent kills and one was being contended over by a hawk and a raven--well, actually, the raven was wisely sitting off to the side waiting for an opening.
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