We took off an hour and a half later than we meant to, and we had to stop for donuts, and then back home to pick up our coats, mittens, and hats. So when you go, be more careful packing your car than we were. We were diverted off the freeway near Smith & Edwards so we had to drive 0 miles an hour through Perry until we got to Sardine Canyon. There were ten collisions involving 29 vehicles on I15 that morning (good thing we were late!), so they gave up and just closed the freeway, which made our drive about three hours long instead of one and a half. After Sardine Canyon, we turned up Blacksmith Fork and it was such a pretty drive! We saw lots of wild turkeys, snow flurries, and the Hyrum City Hydro Electric Plant that's been in service since 1931.
We arrived at the end of the paved road where the parking lot was full (but not too full) of snowmobiles because the mountains are full (but not too full) of snow. We checked out the sparse displays at the visitor's center and purchased our sleigh ride tickets. We hiked back down to the elk, and found that the sleighs have wheels instead of sleds.
The cowboys and girls told us a lot of information about Hardware Ranch's elk feeding efforts which they've been doing since 1945 to encourage the elk to avoid the Cache Valley, which was their historical winter feeding ground.
We stopped at the cool old cabins by the Hyrum Library and visited the museum too. We got an interesting personal tour by a history graduate student and the kids entered a drawing contest. They wrote their names and my phone number on their entries in their very own (slightly illegible) handwriting, so I'm not expecting a call.
Since we'd only eaten donuts that day, we were starving. So we took a break at Maddox in Perry which is the finest food establishment in far northern Utah. We had steak and burgers and we were quite full.
We headed home at the end of a nine-hour adventure and we liked it, although it's more worth it if you were to drive three hours round trip instead of four and a half. Of course, the little kids are good travelers and I like their company wherever we find ourselves.
Here's a movie of the trip: http://youtu.be/pRnlR5SnmvQ
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