The final post from our vacation…
There was no explanation in Park City about this Shoe Tree. Any ideas?
After a few days covered in the red sands of beautiful Zion, we decided to venture to Park City, home to the Sundance Film Festival and many of the 2002 Winter Olympic Game events. What we found was a city that could be the dictionary definition of Boom Town, but strangely quiet in its off-off season. The holy land of skiers, Park City appears to have more freshly painted vacation condos and kitschy gift shops than real, local residents. We showed up one week after the main ski area closed for the season, but before the snow has melted away for summer mountain biking. Lucky for us, this meant a very nice hotel room (hot showers and down duvets included) for next to nothing, and our pick of empty restaurants. The real find was Olympic Park, home of the luge, bobsleigh, skeleton and Nordic jumping events for the Salt Lake City games, and now Olympic training center and Museum. The Museum exhibits were ripe with the emotion of the games, from triumphs and defeats to national pride. It was much more than we expected (and free!).
After the proper amount of clean, fun tourism, we turned for our trek back home, driving through gale-force winds from Utah to Nevada, landing at Rye Patch Recreation Area where we hunkered down in our camper out of the winds. But the winds had a surprise for us. They brought clouds that released around 5 inches of snow on us throughout the evening. Despite little insulation from our canvas pop-up, we made it through the night with wool mittens, knit caps and down vests. We awoke to a sparkling white landscape for our last day of vacation. But it is these unexpected surprises that make our journeys so very special and stick in our memory long after vacation ends.
