The museum was actually pretty neat. It was small enough so that you don't get bored, but large enough and diverse enough to have things that we all enjoyed. Outside of the museum there were a few original artifacts from the cowboy days. You can see Ethan and I in front of a carriage that was used to carry people to the Hot Springs Hotel. Well, we're not really sure that is what it was for, but it seems like it was.
Ellen and Ethan spent hours inside the Pony Express Cabin. Well, not hours, but a good two minutes! The cabin is an original cabin that was located along the Pony Express where the riders would swap horses and rest for the night. The inside was furnished with the original furniture.
Once inside the museum, there were a few different sections. One section that was interesting included old stuff from the cowboy days. Ellen really liked this cash register, but unfortunately it was not for sale. They also had old gambling artifacts, one of which was a slot machine that had a big jackpot of $36. I'm sure in those days that meant a lot more than today.
Outside the back of the museum they had a petting zoo. They had so many different animals and you could feed all of them as long as you bought the special petting-zoo food that was sold in the museum. Here's a picture of a lion that kept following Ellen after she fed him so much food.
Actually these were all stuffed animals, but they had so many of them that looked real. There was one of almost every wild animal that we've heard of, and even more. Most of them looked very real to us.The only odd part about the museum was the clothing that was worn by the museum staff. We could not figure it out since it was 90 degrees outside, but I guess this made them feel more authentic.
After leaving the museum we took the scenic drive towards Salt Lake City, Utah. On the way is the Bonneville Salt Flats, where people try to set world speed records. This is a huge area of salt just on the side of the freeway. It goes on for miles and miles and apparently is a great surface for driving "cars" over 600 miles per hour. They are not really cars, but more like rockets that somehow stay on the ground going at those speeds. Unfortunately they don't race every day, so we didn't get to see any of the rocket cars. They do have a pretty nice observation place on the side of the road so that you don't have to drive out on the salt flats. From the road, it almost appears as a sea of salt.
Along the way, there are really no sites other than nature. I enjoyed the drive as I find it pretty relaxing. The mountains form some beautiful sites and some of them look unreal. It's hard to capture them in pictures, but the ground is completely white from the salt, and the rocks seem to float on top of them.
There are a few man-made sites along the way, one of which is the "Tree of Utah" that was created by a Swedish artist Karl Momen. It took him over four years to create this 87 foot high sculpture made out of 225 tons of cement that he covered with over 2,000 ceramic tiles. In any case, it was a stark contrast to the flat white salt that covered so many miles of the landscape.
As you drive you constantly see sites that are so beautiful they could appear on postcards. There are just too many of them to post here.
We arrived in Salt Lake City around five o-clock and checked-in to the hotel and rested a bit while deciding on what to see in the evening. There's so much to do here on our list, and hopefully we will be able to cover it all over the next couple of days. Luckily in the downtown area they have a nice light-rail system that is free as long as you stay in the areas that house all of the touristy stuff. Fine for us, since we need to see a lot of things in that region.We first headed off to the Gateway Plaza for some dinner. There are tons of tourists in town and we bumped into a nice couple from England who were doing a similar loop around the States as we are, but they are going in the opposite direction. The Gateway Plaza seems to be a huge outdoor area with an enormous amount of stores and restaurants which made a dinner choice pretty easy. Afterward we walked over to Temple Square to take a first look at the Mormon Temple. It's really a beautiful section of town to walk around and includes a tour of their visitor center as well as the entire square that outlines the Mormon culture and the expansion of Salt Lake City. We opted to take the tour tomorrow when we have more time, since we know almost nothing about this religion. There are many missionaries there from other countries who lead the tours as well as wander around and answer any of your questions. Regardless of whether you believe in the Mormon religion, these missionaries are incredibly nice!
That about wrapped up our first evening in Salt Lake City. We're looking forward to the next few days to see all of the sites that we read about!Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn - We rate these hotels a 10. Breakfast is free. Wi-fi is free. Rooms are nice, clean, and big. It is a walk to the free light-rail that runs downtown. If you want to go to the Temple area, you must drive or take the light-rail (5 minute ride).
