Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Utah and Jackson Hole Summer '07

A Little Trip to Utah
Beauty isn't the first word I think of when I think of the Great Salt Lake, but it looked gorgeous the day I flew in.
This is the shop of my Grandpa Roush. He searches Utah for all sorts of rocks to make them into chandeliers and fountains and various products. He has gotten quite good. You do all sorts of things to make them smoother and then polish them.

Here is the fountain he made in his own yard. It's beautiful, especially in the middle of the hot hot Utah summer. I climbed to the top of Ensign peak, where Brigham Young and the early Mormon/LDS pioneers came to Utah and had a vision of what Salt Lake would look like, from little desert wasteland to thriving city.

The Salt Lake City temple, I couldn't get a good picture but there is this pool at the bottom where the whole thing reflects perfectly.

These 2 pictures are of Bear Lake, perhaps, or some gorgeous lake I saw on my drive over from Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Spelunking: The word I know from Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, a common hobby of criminals, apparently.We've got our game faces on.
Old survival trick: eating some natural plant life to keep energy high (the same little spiny flower things you see in the bottom left. This was followed by a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, another old survival trick.
Climbing to the mouth of the cave, I was thought we would have to solve an old Elven riddle to get in, but it was unfortunately open to all. I memorized that language for nothing...

Did you know you can drink water that comes from caves like this because the rocks filter out all the bad stuff (or so I was told, I didn't test it, I know too much about parasites these days) I'm just picturing Giardia and it's beady little eyes looking out from the stream. I guess this is where rivers start, the middle of the mountains where all the rain gathers into a stream. And knowing is half the battle (if I could enter the Reading Rainbow music here, I would)

Deep into the dark we go. The flash fools you on the rest of the pictures.

Good bye light...
Lights on head, on hands and knees, oh yeah, we are spelunkers

We had to kind of balance on these little cliffs with dropoffs on the side. Probably the scariest part of it once you got used to the darkness and close quarters.
The middle of the mountain. If we were hard core, we do something fancy with ropes and such and climb across, but it was a good little hike for starters.
Jackson Hole
The maze of death and doom... or some maze made for kids... YOU DECIDE!!!

I came, I conquered, and I did it in stylin shorts.
If you can't tell, there was a lot of conquerin' goin' down in Jackson Hole. Horse: you're next, fella.
A picture from my horse of the Marlboro farm, famous for many pictures on magazines making oncologists and surgeons rich.
Look at that stallion... no the horse, well okay maybe there is more than one stallion :)
At the shoot-out. Somehow I got picked out to be a volunteer by this familiar gal.
After 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.
This is after I chased off the mother grizzly, and by chased I mean stood there listening so we could run as soon as she came anywhere close.

He was so close and we just followed him for like 20 minutes. Here enjoy a video of the cute guy, I'll call him Fred, here is a video of Fred:


We saw a bear and CONQUERED, I don't know what, but it's a theme of this post.

Lake Baby Grizzly, at least that what it is to me.
I was about to climb the Grand Tetons, but Kara had to go back to her play.

This was the ultimate Lord of the Rings place for me. I think I could be a good Frodo: short skinny, a little hair on my feet

A nice little water fall, that goes into the Lake Baby Grizzly.
The 2 front paddlers (the most important and most wet of them all) is me and Kara.
I am completely under, you just see my hand with the paddle and my head.
I think my instructions for the rapids were hold onto the oar with both hands and don't fall out, and I got 1/2 so that's and F... meh
But, I saw a giant shark in the water and was taking him out by stabbing him with the oar so while I may look unprepared and the only one losing their oar, I am really saving the little girl in front of me from being eaten.


An after 3 months of medical school, I finally got this in the blog.