USA! USA! USA!

2010 appears to be turning into the year of domestic travel. There was Utah. And in the next few months, I'm planning trips to St. Louis, Orlando, and Dallas/Austin. Whew. (Funny, I purchased 3 round trip plane tickets to different destinations in a 24 hour period and my credit card company did not red flag my account. Hmmmm...)

 

To be honest, I haven't seen enough of the U.S.--I generally try to leave the country whenever possible. But in Utah, I had a "proud to be American" moment: there were a ton of European tourists at the national parks, and I realized what a fantastic--and diverse--landscape we have here in the good ol' USA. Sure, while I was at Arches I watched as an overweight sunburnt American father in a tank top caught a small lizard and gave it to his overweight sunburnt daughter to carry along the trail. This enraged me more than when I see flash photography in an art museum, but I was too hot, dehydrated and out of breath (totally blame the elevation, not my fitness level) to yell at them.

We may not win the World Cup, but America is still beautiful, dammit.

So, in the spirit of America the beautiful, here are some facts about our National Parks Service (NPS):

• The NPS was created in 1916. It oversees all the National Parks, some National Monuments and other lands, including National Heritage Sites.  
• The NPS oversees 84 million acres of land (!), divided across 392 areas. The largest is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska (13.2 million acres) and the smallest is Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial in Pennsylvania (0.2 acre). I have been to neither of these.
• The NPS sees over 275 million visitors annually
• There are currently 58 National Parks . Yellowstone was the first to get that status back in 1872 (yes, even before the NPS was established).  National Parks are established only by an act of Congress--and not just any land is designated as a NP. There are four criteria that have to be met:
• It is an outstanding example of a particular type of resource.
• It possesses exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the natural or cultural themes of our Nation's heritage.
• It offers superlative opportunities for recreation, for public use and enjoyment, or for scientific study. 
• It retains a high degree of integrity as a true, accurate, and relatively unspoiled example of the resource.

U! S! A!

Buzzing Around the Beehive State

Utah was amazing! Unbelievably beautiful, and surprisingly diverse in landscape for one state. It was also damn hot and so very dry...until the last day in Bryce Canyon when it was cold and rainy.

There are many, many national and state parks, recreational areas, monuments, etc. in Utah. We visited (or at least drove through) the following: 

• Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky and Needles)
• Arches National Park
• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
• Capital Reef National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Red Canyon
• Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
• Escalante Petrified Forest State Park (total disappointment! hardly any petrified trees!)
• Dixie National Forest (which is really like three separate forests--we drove by many "welcome" and "thanks for visiting" signs.)

 

Canyonlands, Island in the Sky. That's the two big buttes, Monitor and Merrimac.

I believe this is still Canyonlands...

 

Arches--this is Delicate Arch. I only hiked to the upper overlook and this is as close as I could get. The full hike to the arch was 3 miles...this was not going to happen with Mom, in the blistering Utah heat.

 

Resting beneath an arch. 

 

 

Canyonlands, Needles. It looks like Mom is standing in the mouth of the rock monster. Hee.



Bryce Canyon, filled with limestone spires (hoodoos). 

Our last full day in UT, it was 40F and rainy in Bryce Canyon. The fog was so thick we didn't make it all the way through the park. I was really looking forward to seeing the hoodoo that looked like a poodle too...

Salt Lake City and the (not really so) Great Salt Lake

We arrived to clear sunny skies and 80 degrees in Salt Lake City, picking up our rental car and heading straight to the Great Salt Lake.  Now, I have seen all of the Great Lakes and they are pretty great (yes, I know I'm biased), so I had some high expectations for this lake.  What I didn't realize was that the Great Salt Lake is shallow, and pretty dried out. It was a bit of a disappointment.

The Great Salt Lake is eight times (!) saltier than the ocean and second only to the Dead Sea in salinity.  Since there's no outlet to the ocean, salts and minerals carried by rivers and streams get deposited in the lake, and as the water evaporates, it becomes even more concentrated. The water levels were really low on the shore where we went, and it was pretty mucky--I was hesitant to dip my toes in there, but really, will I ever come here again?

The other place in SLC we visited was Temple Square, where Brigham Young chose to be the headquarters of the Mormon Church. Salt Lake City is the spiritual capital of the Mormons (LDS) and the temple here is a sacred pilgrimage destination for them. We also paid a visit to the Beehive House, Brigham Young's very large house. According to one of the LDS sisters giving the tour, he lived there with only one wife. Not sure where the others lived. The tour was a little heavy-handed with the God stuff, I have to say. We were a little freaked out, but at least they were super nice.

Aside: my very first experience with Mormons occurred when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was in Taiwan visiting my grandparents (in what is now my mom's very bustling town of residence) and my sister and I were walking around the busy markets when we saw the only two white people in town. No lie. There were literally zero white (or any other non-Asian) people. One of the guys was pretty cute, and we saw that his name tag said "Elder." So we spent the next few days trying to spot Elder again, but alas, he was never seen again. It wasn't until years and years later that I realized 1. he was a missionary, 2. he was Mormon (I'm from MN--we don't have Mormons there), and 3. his name was not really Elder. I always think of that when I think of Mormons. That, and their weird undergarments...

Oh, and one last thing, Salt Lake City is a really clean and really great smelling city (must be the kind of trees they have planted?).

Utah Saints

Since Icelandic volcanic ash is not my friend, instead jetting over to Berlin, I will be heading westward to Utah. Yes, Utah. We'll be flying into the mecca of Mormons (or LDS, as they are called now), Salt Lake City, to check out the church and dip our toes in the Great Salt Lake before driving south to the alien lanscape of multiple state parks.

A little background on the 45th State:

• "Utah" is derived from Ute tribe, meaning "people of the mountains."  I'm not sure if there are any Utes left, but would not be surprised if they have been wiped out.
• Nickname is the "beehive state." Utahans relate the beehive symbol to industry and the pioneer virtues of thrift and perseverance. The beehive is their official state emblem.
• 80% of the state population (2.7million) lives in the Salt Lake City area, making it one of the top most urbanized areas.
• The Great Salt Lake is the largest lake west of my beloved Great Lakes.
• It is one of the most religiously homogenous (and I'm assuming racially homogenous) states--somewhere between 40-60% are Mormons. However, Mormonism did not start here--Brigham Young moved them from Illinois after some conflict in the 1840s.
• Utah was not granted statehood until the Mormons "banned" polygamy--the U.S. government was not down with big love.
• There are weird drinking laws here:  In certain establishments you must order food to be able to order alcohol (I do not have a problem with this as I love to eat when I drink.) No more than 3.2 beer unless it's a "private club" in which you have to join or be sponsored by a member. No more than 1oz hard liquor at a time--doubles do not exist in Utah. You have to order a "side car", or a shot of alcohol you can add to your drink.  CORRECTION: there WERE weird drinking laws. They were repealed last year. Whew.

And finally, a little bit about the weather...Being a Minnesotan who likes to know the weather forecast at least 10 days in advance, it's looking pretty damn hot over there. I am not one for extreme temperatures, hot or cold.

Salt Lake City: Highs in the 80s (fine)
Moab: Highs in the low 100s. (not okay)

I believe this is hotter than when I went to Egypt. Next to the Sahara Desert. I'm scared.