Utah Trip: Part 2

After leaving the city of our beloved alma mater, we drove down to Millsite State Park for the Hulet family reunion (Matt's mom's family). I'd never been to that area of Utah, and the nearby reservoir and canyons were beautiful. We Pacific-Northwesterners were wilting a bit in the desert heat, but we found ways to cool off and enjoy a great time with everyone.

In the middle of the heat came a flash flood, and while we were getting groceries in the neighboring town, the road to our campsite was washed out. We were caught on the other side of this gusher until some state road trucks came in and cleared the road and filled in the dirt underneath the blacktop. Sudden and powerful! We spent most of the afternoon airing out bedding and washing mud off everything. On the upside, it cooled off everything nicely!

One night we drove into Castledale for the annual Castle Valley Pageant. While waiting for the show to begin, we walked around the pioneer village and helped braid a rug, make ice cream, milk a cow, play the spinning button game. And we took a little ride in a horse-drawn wagon and went inside a tepee. Look at that view behind us!

Another day we drove out into what seemed an endless, barren desert to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. This is an active quarry, although digging has been suspended for a time.

A map showed different species of dinosaur fossils found in the area, and the overwhelming one was the Allosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur with short arms and sharp claws.

They're getting closer to understanding why there is such a large concentration of this one dinosaur, but they haven't even tapped into a fraction of the entire area where suspected other species might be found.

The rest of the time was spent visiting, playing games, swimming, doing a team geocashing challenge (thanks, Andy!), and enjoying being together. Seth and Lydia were drawn to the rocks, whether throwing them in the water...

...or shoveling them into their buckets at our campsite.

The last day Matt's uncle Chad taught everyone to make a rocket out of 2-liter pop bottles filled with rocks and water, and held together with duct tape. They hook it up to a generator-powered compressor and let 'er go! Here's Seth and Matt's rocket, and just as it was launched, wouldn't you know the camera battery died. You'll just have to believe me that it was a successful launch that approached 70 feet, I'd say.

What a great reunion...we can't wait for the next one in two years!