Goin' Upcountry

It was 40℉ at 6:30am this morning.  82℉ at 3pm this afternoon.  I don't think it is possible to dress to cope with that.  It's just about putting as many layers on as possible to start with and peeling them off over time.  It took a while to warm up today though, and the rain jacket didn't come off till mid-day.  I'll be an expert on it when it is time to come home.  As someone who is always second guessing my own decisions I've been thinking what I should have brought instead.  The truth is that nothing would work perfectly, and layers is the only solution.

It was only when I came upon this that I realised I haven't seen many lakes around.  All that snow has to go somewhere.  I don't know if this is natural or dammed.

A lot of today's pictures look as if they could have been shot from the same place.  Much of today was flat and featureless, even when climbing or descending, but it was all above 6,000 ft.  I find it amazing how much farming goes on at that elevation.

Hills and water!  There was a lot of standing water in the fields too.  Either there's been a lot of rain or the snow melt just lies.

A gas station in Wyoming.  I was criss crossing between Utah, Wyoming and Idaho a lot of the way.

In case you can't read it the sign says "World's largest Elkhorn arch."  You know I think I could believe that.

This is man made, but spectacular nonetheless.

There are miles and miles of cereal crops.  It must be a very short growing season at this altitude.

Finally, a proper river.

But back to flat emptiness.

I think the wind turbines in the distance give a clue as to the normal weather.

I chose to stay in Idaho Falls because it sounded like it should be nice with the Snake River running through it.  It's not really.  Downtown might have been quite interesting once, but it is dead.  Like most US cities most economic activity takes place on strip malls and the like beside the main highways - all accessed by car.  Foot traffic is virtually zero, so downtowns suffer.  The fact that Park City has so many shops and restaurants in the old town illustrates what a virtuous or vicious circle it can be.  In season plenty of people stay there and have no transport, so they walk to shop and eat, so shops and restaurants open to serve them which attracts more people etc etc..  I'm glad Britain is short of land so can't have quite such sprawling out of town retailing as the US.  It's bad enough as it is.  We need to protect our high streets.  They give focus to a community.

On that cheery and pretentious note I'll bid you goodnight.

At Rest

I'd forgotten that since we were here Park City had hosted the Winter Olympics.  That would explain the Olympic Park with its ski jumps and some of the development.  There's a lot more recent than that though.  It is obviously a thriving area.

I was up and outside by 6:30am and there was a real chill in the air, as well as the first dew I've seen.  I took a couple of pics of the immediate surroundings:

The ski jumps are just visible in the next one.

There was a hot buffet breakfast which made a nice change, and it was calm and civilised having breakfast watching TV with just a couple of other people.  It was an absolute zoo a couple of hours later.  I think that would put me off having a ski holiday in a hotel.

Since it is a public holiday today I decided to more or less have the day off.  I took the bike into Park City proper and took some photos:

It really is quite a quaint little town.  I then headed out to Brighton, a resort we had liked very much when we were here and took some photos on the way:

Still some snow, but no runs open.

A lot more snow on the back country.

So much that I couldn't get to Brighton as the road was closed.

So I went back to Park City for coffee.

This one's for Tam.

The road back to my hotel.

The crowd at breakfast in the morning suggested a lot of people had come to spend the holiday here, and everywhere was very busy as I ambled around.  The Outlet Mall (well what ski resort could be without one) seemed to be particularly so.

I'd forgotten what a good sandwich can be had at a supermarket.  I had "authentic Italian" with a wrap the size of a bicycle wheel with ham, salami, pepperoni, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, red peppers and dressing.  Delicious and all for $4.  I spent much of the rest of the day lazing arond reading and eating some of the half kilo of Lindor that I got from TJ Maxx for $8.

It is now evening and the place is deserted, the hotel being almost empty.  I should have argued for a cheaper rate for tonight.

I'm headed for Idaho Falls in the morning.  It's not that far, so I will discipline myself to take some photos, and try to remember what they are of.

I went into a local equivalent of Curry's to ask about a compact camera with a viewfinder.  The sales guy knew absolutely nothing about the cameras he had for sale.  Just like at home.  I'll go to Park Cameras when I get back.

I remembered that the blog website collects stats on readership, so had a look at that today.  (You can tell I had a lot to do.)  It's quite humbling in a way.  In the past week, as well as expected readership in UK, US and Greece, there have been people accessing from Ireland, Romania, Philippines, and Cote D'Ivoire.  I wish some of them would comment and let me know what they make of it, and why they read it.  There was an amazing number read it when I did the Alaska trip.  That will spur me on to new heights, so I'll go and get some sleep so that I have the energy to deliver.