The Great Salt Lake: Spiral Jetty

A few weeks ago I started getting antsy for a trip! We hadn't been to a State Park since November! I started doing my research and decided we should go to The Great Salt Lake. After looking up all the things you can do there, I realized we were limited by the winter season, I decided we would go to the Spiral Jetty.

For those of you who don't know the Spiral Jetty was built by Robert Smithson in 1970.  It is made of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, and water that forms a spiral in the Great Salt Lake. It is 1,500 feet long which is so crazy. Some people go above and beyond for their art. :)

Me not knowing the exact location told Blake we could just stop by one Sunday on our way to his parents house in Bountiful. See, in my head The Great Salt Lake was 30 minutes away. The Spiral Jetty couldn't be much farther of a drive. Boy was I wrong.

Turns out the Spiral Jetty is on the North-Eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake and that is pretty much on the other side of the lake from us.

I have said this a million times, but Blake is such a good sport! Even though the drive was going to be 7 hours, round trip he was willing to do it for me. That is why I love him so much! 

All of the blogs and websites I read about going to the Spiral Jetty said a high clearance, all wheel drive vehicle was an absolute must. Since neither of our cars met either of those requirements we decided to rent a car. We had such a good experience renting when we went to Arches Nation Park and Blake always loves the idea of not putting miles on our cars. 

We picked up a Jeep Cherokee, Trail Hawk addition, and got on our way. To get to the Spiral Jetty you drive all the way to Corinne, Utah population 700, and head West out to the middle of no where. Eventually you pass a rocket building and testing facility which is really random and also pretty cool. 

Farther along the road in the middle of no where you pass the Golden Spike!  Which of course united our great country from sea to shinning sea! My great, great, great, great, grandfather,  Richard Todd Brown was actually there in 1869 the day the golden spike was nailed into the track. We didn't stop and look at it because you had to pay an entrance fee, and we are cheapos, but we could kind of see where everyone was standing which I am assuming was where the Golden Spike was. :)

At this point the paved road turns to dirt as promised in all the blogs, and I was ready for some rough terrain. To start, it was perfectly packed down with no pot holes in sight, and to be honest it stayed like that the whole way! I don't know if they just re-did the dirt road or if all the websites are terribly out of date but it was smooth driving the whole way!

Finally we turned a bend and there was the spiral jetty! I was surprised at how busy it was since it was so far out of the way. We passed a handful of cars leaving on our way in and there were a couple groups there still when we arrived.

It really is huge when you are out on it. Sometimes it is covered by water but right now the water isn't even close to it. We thought it would be fun to walk out to the water. It took a while but we did get to it.

 Up on the hill over looking the Jetty it was pleasantly cool but out on the Jetty and walking to the water it was FREEZING. The wind was blowing so hard I could barely see due to the hair in my face or think because my brain was literally frozen.  It was pretty crazy though because instead of walking through sand it is just crystalized salt that looks like ice. 

When we made it back to the shore we had to recharge and heat up in the car before we could get out and take pictures. After we warmed up we hiked up the hill a little ways and took a few pictures. The wind was blowing like crazy so it was hard to keep my hair out of my face. Sorry for the pictures overload but here are some of my favorites. 

The hillside was covered in basalt rock. It was beautiful with all the different sized boulders. 

When it was time to leave we started driving away and right as we were passing a Jetty left by oil drillers a long time ago (not the Spiral Jetty) Blake said he didn't want to waste the awesome car that we rented so we drove down a pretty steep hill, drove on the lake for a second, and drove back up the steep hill. It was kind of lame that we didn't actually need the car but it is still always fun to drive something new. 

On our way home we stopped by Costco in Bountiful. We have been talking about getting a new TV for a long time. After comparing prices we found that Costco was having killer sales on their TV's thanks to the New Year and the Super Bowl. So we picked up the TV we had our eye on up while we had a larger vehicle. While we were at Costco we also had dinner. I absolutley love their pizza!

It was such a fun day trip with my guy and I am stoked that I can cross another Stake Park off my list.    

Walker Christmas 2014

The holiday season was so busy I never got around to blogging about it. I actually just got to sorting through the pictures taken on Christmas, today, two months later. I just want the pictures to be documented for memory sake so here they are. 

This year we celebrated the Walker Christmas on the 27th and 28th. On our Christmas Eve we made the traditional home made pizza, and put together the traditional puzzle. :)

Jenna and Kevin found the cutest Santa suit for Camille. She looked absolutely adorable with her hat on. I love the Haderlie's dearly! Now Jenna just needs to have another baby, because I can never have to many niece's and nephews. 

Grandma Walker with Camille. 

All of my niece's and one nephew on the Walker side in their cute Christmas pajama's by our Christmas stockings. 

All the "kids" ready for bed in the family room. 

Opening presents on our Christmas Day!

Camille gave Lydia a bouncing ball. She loved it!!

 Opened presents everywhere!

This Is The Place Heritage Park

Blake and I for the first time in a long time had this last Saturday free. The possibilities of what to do were endless. Since I am still on my quest to visit all the state and national parks as well as temples in Utah, we decided to head to Salt Lake City, and have a fun date.

It was such a rainy Saturday. I can't even believe it is Christmas next week and still NO SNOW! We got to sleep in and in the early afternoon headed to Salt Lake to catch the 2 O'Clock Endowment Session at the temple. I had only been to the Salt Lake Temple to do baptisms for the dead so I was so excited to go. It was absolutely beautiful! I feel so blessed to have a worthy priesthood holder as a husband and for his example to me.

After the temple we went and had dinner at the Market Street Grill. We had a gift card given to us at our wedding we hadn't had a chance to use. It was delicious! I had the best hamburger I had ever tasted, and the waitress we got was amazing and so attentive!

After dinner the rain had finally subsided and we drove east on our way to This Is The Place Heritage Park. Which just happens to be a State Park. During the Christmas season they do what is called Candle Light Christmas. They usually close at 5 but during Candle Light Christmas they stay open till 9 and have Christmas activities. We paid and got ourselves a map and went strategically from house to house. From what I gathered This Is The Place Heritage Park is full of relocated historical homes. We went from house to house and at each stop there was a different activity.

One home had a blazing fire going and a nice lady dressed in pioneer attire told stories of Christmas traditions way back when and what life would be like. In another house you could make your own bee's wax candles. My favorite was the town hall that had carolers and dance instructors.

It was pretty chilly outside but since we weren't outside very much we surprisingly stayed warm most of the time.  I don't know what the park is like without the Christmas theme but it was fun to go at this time of the year to see the lights and feel the Christmas spirit.

All in all it was a very successful Saturday and we were able to strike two things off our to do list!