21 September 2012 - Moose

Jack had not wanted to go to Park City with Amy and me, as poking around in shops is just not fun for him, but he was really sorry to have missed seeing the moose when we were in Brighton. 

So Friday afternoon after work we headed to Silver Lake hoping for a moose sighting. It was great! Not one, but two! My best guess is that these two were yearlings, but nevertheless, they are still very large animals. Going up in the afternoon was perfect as there were very few people around. 

In this picture of Jack, if you look closely you can see both of them. The male has his head down, but you can see the white of his antlers just behind Jack's collar. 

We had a great time watching them, then walked quietly around the lake to sneak up through the bushes for closer pictures. We were able to get up very close, probably too close. YIKES!

Our boy had a lovely long beard that was soaking wet since he was eating underwater vegetation. 

Amy and I had been here a week earlier, and the leaves had not turned color yet. You could see in a few places that they were starting to yellow up. A week later, most of the aspens had turned yellow so we had some color. 

We left Silver Lake behind and headed for Park City. Again, the hills were aspen gold. 

When we drove over the top of Guardsman Pass, it was equally golden. There is nothing quite like aspens turning gold among stands of pine trees. It has always been one of my favorite sights. 

 In Park City we went straight to the resort for the rides. We bought combination tickets for the Alpine Slide, the Alpine Coaster and the zipline.  Woo-hoo! We went for the zipline first hoping to get up there before the hoards of kids started arriving. We took the ski lift up and admired the color as we ascended. The maples were orange and red, but in a muted palette due to the dryness. The picture below was taken at the start of the slide.

 Speaking of the slide...here's Jack resting after hauling his sled from the ski lift over to the slide. 

I loved the zipline, but it was over too quickly, so my favorite was the coaster.  You could go down the hill full throttle and not worry about falling out or falling off the track. 

Jack also loved the coaster and had no problem screaming down the track at full speed. Does this look like he is having some fun?  Oh yeah. 

And here is an idea of what the track was like. It curved back and forth through the trees on its way down hill. Those turns were exhilarating! Absolutely, I want to do it again.

And this is what just a small part of what the Alpine Slide looked like. 

  It was a great day!