The Great Escape - In Sun Valley

The first day we did the typical tourist thing... we drove around the little towns (Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley), visited the various gift shops and just enjoyed the time together.

They are quaint little tourist towns and we happened to be visiting in between their "busy seasons".  




The view of one of the ski areas from the Sun Valley Resort parking lot...

This truck was in the front yard of a residence in Ketchum...  What a crazy looking thing!

The Horse Sculpture was in the town square of Ketchum...

At the intersections that did not have signals, there were crosswalk flags for people to carry as they crossed the street.  As if carrying an orange flag really makes a difference... We witnessed several people using them as they were intended, but we also some teens messing around with them.  One was just waving it as a flag girl in a band would, one was pretending to ride a stick pony across the street, and one... well, I'm not sure what he was doing, but it was interesting to watch!

We also saw several teams of women stopping to organize them neatly on the holders and making sure they were evenly distributed.  We simply shook our heads and giggled.

While visiting an art gallery, it was suggested that we take a scenic drive that involved a two-lane dirt road that went through National Forest land and joined up with a highway that followed the Salmon River.  In all it was to take approximately 4 hours. 

So the next day we packed our cooler and ventured off!  It really was a beautiful drive.

We traveled the dirt road to Hwy 93.  Shortly there after we came across a Historic Site marker...  

 The sign said the epicenter of an an earthquake that opened up a fracture was just a short 2.5 miles down the dirt road... Okay!  Let's go.  We wanted to see the fracture that was 26 miles long and 7 miles deep... 









We came across a fenced area that looked like the picture below, but there was no sign, other than the one that said "No horses in parking lot".  However, that was apparently the site we were to stop at.  

We drove a bit longer and then drove some more... 40+ miles later on a dirt road we came to another highway.

Apparently we had no clue as to what we were looking for.  In my on-line research I found these pictures...  






Below is one that marks out the fault line with arrows.  

The above picture shows the shift of the valley floor. 

While we may have been clueless about what we were looking for as far as the earthquake site, we did go through several tiny towns on our way back to Sun Valley...  The smallest was Clayton, ID...

We enjoyed a visit with one of the residents and discussed the mining in the area.  There had been lots of mining in the past, but the reclamation of the mine areas have left the area very clean with little evidence for visitors to see anything but the beauty of nature. 

Below is the Salmon River and the Sawtooth Mountain range.

We saw a herd of sheep, the shepherd and the sheep dogs moving sheep across the highway....  You may notice the "Sheep Camp" in the lower picture....

 A very nice couple offered to take our picture... No need for a selfie!

It was such a pleasurable and relaxing drive!  A drive that was to originally been 4 hours turned into 8 hours!  We then enjoyed an evening "out on the town" in Ketchum as the beginning of the "Trailing of the Sheep" festival was just starting.  People watching at its finest!  

Funniest statement we heard... as a group of people were waiting for the walk signal to cross the street, though there were no cars present.  A pushy middle aged man forced his way to the front of the group... "oh, for crying out loud (this may have been edited).  It's Ketchum, not Los Angeles!" 

Oh, and we thought we saw Nancy Kerrigan, but it was just someone that looked like her and was much younger.

So there you go... Our stay in Sun Valley... in a nutshell.  

Blessings,

Melva

PS... just one more post about our travel home.  Thanks for joining us on our trip!

The Great Escape - We Arrive in Sun Valley!

We chose a scenic route to Sun Valley... of course, SV is basically off of the beaten path, so any way of getting there is scenic.

The terrain became more rolling hills - not mountains as we had expected.

Another thing unexpected... There's a very large Nuclear test lab/area!

It was interesting to learn at an area rest stop about all of the testing that occurred there during WWII.

A bit farther down the road the terrain again began to change as we approached the Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve...It is a lava flow that began 15,000 years ago with the most recent activity occurring a mere 2,000 years ago.  It covers a 750,000 acres.
 We enjoyed another roadside lunch...

Not one of our best pics, but none the less...

Our last stretch of road took us to SV and the condo...

The elevation was not a high as we had thought... and the "mountains" seemed naked!

 

After hiking some trails in the neighborhood we ventured to the store for a few groceries... Let me tell you the cost of food was outrageous!  However, we got settled and enjoyed the next few days exploring the Valley.

Don't you love the furniture?  Quite 70's, but it was comfortable, clean and FREE!

More of our adventures to come!

Melva

The Great Escape - Day 2...

The Great Escape - Day 2...

We enjoyed the day touring Salt Lake City... We visited the Mormon Temple Square.

Joseph Smith had an experience with the Holy Spirit...  "Members" say that it is their belief in Jesus Christ, their Savior & Redeemer, that changed their lives.  He change mine as well.  However, it seems a bit extreme that now the "Members" follow a "Living Prophet" over and before following Jesus Christ.  This is where I struggled...

Above is a replica of the  "plates" that 
Joseph Smith "found" and then returned to 
the "Moroni" or angels...

(There seems to be a deeper secret about this belief... something that deeply disturbed Dave and I.  The longer we stayed on the Temple Square, the stronger it got... and even this morning, as I google information about "Mormonism" there is an obvious "missing piece" that seems to leave a gaping hole in "their truth".)

 The grounds and gardens were beautiful, well kept and very clean.

  This is a cut-away replica of the "Holy Temple" - they only perform marriages and baptisms for members in there.  It is not cathedral like at all, which was somewhat surprising.

We did go listen to the organ concert, which was quite impressive. The acoustics are incredible... you can hear a pin drop with out the need for amplification. 

Funny story!!!  There was a school group on a field trip... probably about 2nd or 3rd grade, with several boys sitting in the row just in front of us.  The concert was 30 minutes long and they were getting restless (and the chaperons were not paying attention the the children because they were on their cell phones!).  Dave quietly leaned forward and whispered "Stop it."  They were very taken by surprise, but they stopped.  (Again, the chaperons were completely unaware that this had happened.)  We had to suppress our giggles at their reaction.  Dave worried that he had caused them to have nightmares or that they would have some fear of organ music... lol!  I'm sure they're fine... wink, wink.

After a street-side picnic, in the back of the jeep, downtown we traveled to Antelope Island, located in/on the Great Salt Lake.  

The lake level was way down, so we didn't explore any beaches... it just looked mucky and smelled bad.

  There was a huge herd of buffalo on the island - about 700, we were told.  We had to stop a couple times as they crossed the road in front of us... hoping that they didn't spook and suddenly head-butt or kick our car.

There is a 8-mile causeway to the island. 

Day three we traveled on to Idaho... more to come!

Melva