UTAH!

We have had a couple of busy days! We had a 7:30 am flight on Saturday and finally got to our hotel room 12 hours later. On Sunday, we went to Capital Reef National Park.

This is Fruita, a Morman settlement that raised fruit until the early 1950's.

These are 800 year old Fremont Indian Petroglyphs.

This is the reason for the "capitol" in the name. When first discovered in the mid 1800s, they thought the mountain looked like the Capitol Dome in Washington, DC. The picture below is how it how it got the "reef" name as they thought it looked like an ocean reef,

We then drove over Boulder Mountain, elevation 9600' at the summit. There was still snow on the ground and beautiful views! This a view of Capital Reef.

We were on UT12 heading to Escalente. It is a beautiful road although there is one section called the Hog's Back. It is basically 2 lanes on the top ridge of a mountain with major dropoffs on each side....although we heard Hell's backbone was even worse! I forgot to mention that it was 14 degree grade downhill!

There IS a road between the red boulders!

A few last pictures from England

Wales countryside

Chester

Town clock

There is a 2 story arcaded shopping area

Part of old Roman wall

Steepest street in England

Shrewesbury and Long Mynd (Long Mountain)

We saw this paraglider. The boys were happy that they were on the ground!

Stratford on Avon

Clock tower

We went to see a play at the Swan Theater. It was fantastic. The actors spoke Olde English and were fantastic...although we couldn;t understand everything they said!

Side view of Anne Hathaway's cottage

Cotswolds

The view from Dovers Hill.

They "count" their sheep!

Another view from Dovers Hill

The old market place in Chipping Camden.

All the houses in Chipping Camden are made of stone.

This house in Broad Camden has a thatched roof.

This house has a slate roof. See the stone fence.

This is Broadway Tower, the smallest and "tallest" castle in the Cotswolds.

Brecon Beacons and the Big Pit Coal Mine

The train we saw in the Beacons

We saw this sheep open the lid to the salt box (used in the winter for the steep roads) and having a snack of salt!

This was draw bridge over the River Avon. It was a "push bridge" since  done by hand and not an engine.

We went to a coal mine, down 300 feet! No pictures below since the only batteries allowed were for the lights on our hard hats. We wore a belt that weighed 12 lbs with a battery pack and emergency breathing device like miners use to wear.

Here was our guide for the mine tour. He worked in the mines when he was younger. In the 1800s children from the age of 5 use to work in the mines to open and shut doors. They worked in complete darkness, earned a penny a day for 12 hours work. The only school hey went to was Sunday School to learn how to read and write. They use to have lots of rats since they used horses to pull the coal carts and there was horse feed in the mines.