Salmon Running up at Strawberry

Well we went into SLC for Labor day and got there on Sunday.  It was great I got to move some more items into my garage-making the move easier.  And on the way we got to see the salmon running up the river in Strawberry.  It was great the water just looks pink.  They have a discovery trail which you can walk on and look at the scenes with trail markers, and over looking the river.  Some of the kokanee salmon go to the hatchery and are milked and some salmon get to go on and run naturally.

At the hatchery they were just jumping all over the place.  So if you have a chance and are up by Strawberry Reservoir between August and October you should check them out.

Yeah my DH did it most all of the pics where recovered!

Weekends not over, the 25th of July!

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On Saturday we took them on the Auto tour at Dinosaur National Monument, which was very informational and fun they got to feed antlions, they are very sneeky and ruthless and I had never heard of them before. O remembers feeding them when he had visited as a child so the fun has been passed on.

left;Green River

right; Feeding the ant"lions"

We also got to see an old cabin that lies in the bottom of the canyon in dinosaur a Miss Josie Bassett Morris lived there(thats the end of the tour).http://www.utahoutdooractivities.com/josiemorriscabin.html

After then we stopped at the Visitor center in

Jensen and while the children and I picked the wild strawberries in the flower beds O got a crazy idea to go to Fantasy Canyon, which was cool but very far out there. After getting there they all followed each other in a line and explored reading the posted signs, that was great. http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/vernal/recreation_/fantasy_canyon.html

Needless to say we got home late and had to finish packing the girls for camp Monday morning. But it was a great fun-filled information packed family weekend.

July 24th, Happy Pioneer Day!

Well the 24th was great day for us here. We took all the kids to a huge Scout pancake breakfast, big here in Vernal. And it was $2 per child good price and great fun because they had a bouncer slide(I think thats what it is called?) a buffalo bladder toss(balloon toss) sack races and coloring and then a park to boot to play on. The smaller kids loved the bouncer, all loved the balloons and almost everyone fell over in the sacks.

At the same park was The Moving Wall, a traveling veterans memorial, http://www.themovingwall.org/. We walked through and observed, that part of the park was surprisingly quiet. A lot of names facts and pictures. If you have a chance I recommend seeing it.

After that was the parade, we didn't stay at the parade instead we went to Dinosaur National Monument. All the children became Jr. Paleantologists, they had to do book work and take the oath, the smaller ones loved it. Unfortunately the larger Quarry Visitor Center was closed, we did drive by it to do the hike and see the bones that have been left on a trail to see how they are found. The Quarry will be opened I believe they said in 2011. http://www.nps.gov/dino

Then of course we ate our picnic lunch we packed on the way home. Then we took 4 children over to the IFA and they where having a grand opening, new store, and the boys did the mutton busting they thought that was neat and received stick horses as prizes. L gets very nervous around animals so this surprised me a lot.

After that fun we took them all fishing, and PT pulled 4 or 5 fish out with the same 1/3 of a worm that we put on his hook. The fish didn't swallow the whole hook so O was able to get the worm back and about a minute after PT cast out he would pull in another one. L, KT, and S all where having fun the teenagers just hung out in the car. We did some great fishing that night.

I have posted the website links of places we went so if you are curious you can just link over.

Jones Hole Fish Hatchery, Saturday June 27,2009

Day Trip #1

What a great day! O visited a local bike shop a couple of weeks ago and picked up these pamphlets full of one day self guided tours, they also have a website you can visit here; http://www.dinoland.com/Tours-and-Trips. And today we went on the first one to Diamond Mountain Jones Hole & Fish Hatchery.

The drive was beautiful its been raining a lot so its very lush and green. On our way up we saw a Vulture in the middle of the road after scaring her off we noticed that she was eating some crickets, they where Mormon crickets, they were so big. There where a lot. After driving for 40 miles you go down into this small canyon against some rugged cliffs and there at the bottom is the fish hatchery. It was great because as soon as we got there we walked up to the building and there was holding tanks outside with brown trout in them all about 5 inches long. When you stand by a holding tank its funny its as if you have some sort of force field around you they perfectly arch around your shadow.



Then the ranger came over with 2 buckets with fish food for the kids to throw. What a feeding frenzy that was! The Ranger was great because he refilled the buckets a couple of times when the boys asked.

Inside the building we saw where all the smaller fish were held. And we also saw the incubators but they were empty. So I asked when they would be filling them up again and got a schedule to go back when they are full, and that will be in the fall. There we got coloring books, posters, and stickers.

We then went down into some lower holding tanks where the larger fish are and fed them the last of the food. We walked down the path that leads to the spot where the Jones River meets with the Green River, but only a little ways. That was just before we had lunch and headed home. There are pics enjoy, we did!