Friday April 23, 2021

The purpose of this three day weekend is to visit the annual Tulip Festival at Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. We've seen it before and it is spectacular. We'll explore a few other things while we're in the area.

Three hundred sixty uneventful miles to Salt Lake. Weather clear, in the 60s. First stop was a truck stop breakfast at Boise Stage.

We left the freeway for a few miles at Perry, taking Rt 89 south to find the "Fruit Way". Some orchards in bloom, but not very impressive!! Back on the freeway to horrible traffic all the way to downtown. We spend an hour or so walking around Temple Square, admiring the beautiful spring flowers. The place is in a bit of disarray due to the monstrous construction project going on a the Temple itself. They have along way to go! The city seems to be still shut down due to continuing Covid-19 virus restrictions.

We're staying two nights at a well worn Sleep Inn in South Salt Lake. Tomorrow IKEA, Thanksgiving Point tulip festival and perhaps a loop drive up to Timpanogos Caves area.

Saturday April 24 Tulips Galore!

 Cloudy and breezy this morning. Weatherman has predicted showers later. (In fact, while it may have threatened at times, it never rained and turned into quite a nice day!)

My day started with a 1.5 mile walk around the Maverick Center which is just up the road. Its the home of the Utah Grizzlies minor league hockey team and various events.

After our in-room breakfast we headed south to IKEA where we browsed and bought basically nothing. But is always fun to look for ideas!

Our plan for the day was have lunch at the Trellis Cafe at the Gardens before our 1:15 time to actually enter the gardens. We arrived at about noon and holy cow! So many people! The parking lots were full and there were people everywhere. All tickets had been sold in advance on a time reserve system to even out the flow. We figured there was no way we'd get a place for lunch (they don't take reservations).  But, alas! We got in with about a 5 minute wait; had an excellent meal and were done right at our scheduled time!

The tulips are spectacular! So many different varieties. There is one display area called the "Scent Garden" where each variety was labelled. We walked about 1.5 miles around the park in about 2 hours.

Our goal after the gardens was a trip up into the mountains to check out the Timpanogos National Monument, which is apparently known for its cave. A windy road up through the canyon, with lots of picnic areas along the creek. Unfortunately, the cave and the visitor center were closed due to Covid. Darn, no magnet! Our intention was to continue up that road and loop back around to the valley floor. Along the way we came to Tibble Fork Reservoir. Looks like  a nearly new park featuring swimming & hiking (in the summer). However, this is where the road ended; apparently the upper reaches wouldn't open until summer.

So we headed back down for the 30 mile drive back up I-5 to our hotel. What a nerve-racking experience! Five lanes, 75 mph. Utah has the weirdest, spaghetti bowl highway system around here, I don't know how you'd ever find your way without GPS. They talk about "infrastructure". Its beyond me how one solves this - they've already covered every inch with highways!

Nice dinner at Cracker Barrell.

On the road tomorrow over the mountains to Wyoming, Fossil Beds NM and ending up in Logan UT.

Thousands of Legos!

Sunday April 25 The Back Road to Fossil Butte and Logan

Today was marked by minor disappointments. We left SLC and drove up thru Park City, past Jordanelle Reservoir into Kamas. Our intent was to take Rt 150 up and over the mountain passes and end up in Evanston, WY. We got about 15 miles in and found the road closed! Darn! Must be a seasonal thing, closed during winter.

So we had to back track through Kamas and go north to Wanship where we picked up I-80 all the way to Evanston. It was pretty ride; through Echo Canyon. 

From Evanston we headed north on Rt 189 up to  Fossil Butte National Monument. Sam claims we had been here before, many years ago, but I had no recollection. She has a magnet to prove it! Anyway, the visitor center is closed on Sundays! (What?)  So it was a detour of little value.

Then heading west on Rt 30 to Garden Valley, on the western shore of beautiful Bear Lake (with its azure blue water even on a cloudy day). Then up and over Logan Pass (7000') and down into Logan to our Quality Inn. Dinner at Olive Garden. 

        

Monday April 26 Return home the scenic way

The weather was pretty lousy today, rain showers off and on and really cold - mid 30s; dusting of snow on the hilltops. We took the back roads up thru Franklin (the oldest town in Idaho), Malad City, Rockland and into American Falls. Then the long slog home on I-84, with its trucks! 

We arrived about 4:00, unpacked and had dinner at Black Bear.

Total distance driven on the trip is about 1100 miles.  The GTI is very comfortable and gets 35-39MPG. Our mission was accomplished - to visit the tulip festival. It was spectacular!