St. Louis: The Arch

 We are on our way to the Cave Run Storytelling Festival in Kentucky but we had a few extra days before needing to be there. Trish and I stopped for three nights in St. Louis.  Our hotel was about a ten minute walk from the Gateway Arch National Park.  We had a great view right from our window.

Since we have a couple of days here, we decided to spend a whole day around here and soak in everything that can be done.  We loved it!

After watching a virtual reality movie depicting St. Louis in the mid- nineteenth century, it was time to take the tram to the top of the Arch.

From the 600 foot high view at the top, you see all of St. Louis from one side and across the Mississippi River into Illinois on the other. Here is a view right down to the historic Dred Scott courthouse.

After lunch we had a riverboat ride on the Mississippi. We had no idea how much commerce happens on the river here. We watched a constant dance of barges being moved, loaded, unloaded, and then heading down the River toward Memphis or on to New Orleans for export.

Our final activity of the day was watching the movie about the building of the arch.  It is next to unbelievable to watch the 1963-65 workers complete this unimaginable job without a single accident. It was a good way to finish a good day!

Back on the Train

 After two great days of exploring around Moab, Utah, Trish and I got back on the Rocky Mountaineer for our return trip to Denver.

The first part of this trip took us across the Utah desert where everything in sight showed us what desert crossing is really like.  We imagined both the first pioneers who walked across here and them the first steam train passengers who make what to them was a magically fast trip.

Soon we joined the headwaters of the Colorado River which guided our route all the way to Glenwood Springs for the night.  We often saw people fly fishing, but we could not at all figure out now then got to this remote part of the River.

The route back over the Rockies is always so interesting and inspiring.  We passed through forty-four tunnels on this return trip.  Once in a while we say a house high up and wondered how people got there, especially to build it!  We often saw the front end of our own train as there were plenty of curves.

Arriving in Denver at the beautiful Rally Hotel, our room looked right into Coors Field where that evening the Denver Rockies defeated the Los Angeles Angels seven to six.  Just for the end of our adventure, we decided, there was an extended fireworks show at the end of the game.  This was the view from our hotel room!

We highly recommend the Rocky Mountaineer and have another trip, this one in Canada, planned for next fall.

Arches National Park

 Instead of buying any of the tours offered by the Rocky Mountaineer, Trish and I rented a Bronco for two days and spent them exploring on our own.  We have been to Arches National Park before, but, it is so very spectacular that we had to spend most of our first day there again.

The sandstone formations and arches that we see today started out more than 300 million years ago when a vast underlying salt base began to push up domes in the overlay.  Some of these domes split and some even turned over leaving erosion to create the arches and other formations we see here today.

These days the Park requires people to get a time of entry pass.  This is a great idea as it spreads out access and eliminates the overcrowding midday that we used to experience here.  We had no difficulty at all finding parking space wherever we wanted it and the trails were not crowded at all.

At different times of the day, the light changes the shapes of the sandstone and the visual experience is different.  Here at Sand Dune Arch the light paints a unique visit.

There are also unique slots and trails.

After we left Arches, we took a road beside the Colorado River below Moab where we saw a multitude of Petroglyphs left by ancient Anasazi residents.

We have another whole day here before we get back on the train for Denver.

Rocky Mountaineer Train

 The Rocky Mountaineer Train Company in Vancouver, Canada, now has its first scenic route in the United States. It is called Rockies to the Red Rocks, and, Trish and I are in the middle of this eight day trip.

We boarded this magical first class train in Denver, Colorado, and were immediately served breakfast, our first of constant feeding throughout the day! We headed up from Denver over the Continental Divide through the Moffatt Tunnel (fifteen minutes through the tunnel on the train) and began to follow the very beginnings of the baby Colorado River.

Our cars have giant windows and the whole world comes inside as we make our way through a total of forty tunnels.  At the end of the day we stop for the night in Glenwood Springs where Trish and I relax in the Hot Springs before sleep.  Next morning we are on our way again.

Our destination today is Moab, Utah, where we have a three day layover so we can explore Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and all that is around there.

This is such a lovely and smooth ride.  The Rocky Mountaineer people take perfect care of us.  The trip is already worth our taking and we keep looking forward to all that is coming.

Rocky Mountain National Park

 Trish and I spent much of the past week at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, so we could visit Rocky Mountain National Park.  The Stanley itself was built in 1909 by F. O. Stanley, one of the twin Stanley brothers who invented dry plate photographic negatives and created the Stanley Steamer automobile. He was also a central figure in promoting the creation of the National Park.

In addition to driving our own car, we took an open-top van tour into the park.  This enabled us to go places we could not have gone in our own and avoid having to drive or deal with parking.  It was wonderful!

We took unpaved roads about which we would have never known on our own into places we never would have seen.

From above 12,000 feet the view went on forever.  Both of us, though, did feel some altitude complications through our days there.

There were still many patches of snow from last winter showing.  What used to be larger glaciers have now multiple small remnants.  Overall it is breathtaking.

On another day we had a ghost tour back at the hotel, but, even spirits could not compare with the wondrous beauty of nature!

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

 We have just completed the 36th Timpanogos Storytelling Festival which is held in beautiful Ashton Gardens  in Lehi, Utah.  In addition to being strongly programmed with a dozen national tellers performing in five large tents, the setting is spectacular.

The gardens are fifty-five acres of lush beauty right in the middle of  Utah desert.

The performance tents are scattered among constantly tended masses of flower gardens.  These are summer annual flowers, but, when the first freeze comes, they will all be taken out and replaced by 800,000 tulip and other bulbs for the April-May Tulip Festival.

Besides the tents for daytime performance, there is a gigantic amphitheater backed up but waterfalls used for the evening performances.  The hillside is covered with blankets and quilts as well as thousands of whole families.  Tellers are projected on two Jumbotrons for everyone to see.  

Make this Festival a priority for a visit!