Crater

The day began with me, alone in bed, waking up to nightmares. JE had left very early to take out car to the dealership in an attempt to find out why it has been overheating. Nightmares gave way to wakefulness and coughing. Nasty stuff. I haven't been sick for this long in years.; is it Utah?

The car is fine, by all accounts. The mechanic test drove it three times and could find nothing wrong with it. So we drove up to Sundance. While we were walking around, we passed a family taking pictures. Someone called out, "hey Larry, want to come be in our family portrait?" I looked over and saw Larry King running into frame. I turned to JE and told him I wanted to ask for a photo with my aliens. Yah, they go everywhere with me these days, for just such occasions. JE was adamant that I had to be the one to ask, no way was he going to do it! No sweat. Mr. King had no qualms with my taking a photo with him, even when I introduced him to Nuni and Sassathorne. One of his entourage asked if it was like a flat stanley, and I said yes. He reached for the dolls, but I explained that if I hold them, they look life sized. He joked that it was the first time having a photo taken had to be explained to him. But when I was done and showed him the photo, he laughed, said it was cool and passed it around to show his wife and family. Fun.

We continued our drive up the canyon, making it to the Timoanogas trailhead without overheating.

The drive up is so beautiful. The mountains are cragged and massive icicles drip out of them, where springs fall in the summer. There is little snow right now, so the foliage near the river is still autumnal in color. Everything is radiantly gold and green from the evergreens. At the top, near the trailhead, silvery birch trees up to their ankles in snow, line the entrance.

One of the things we anticipated doing while here, was to go to the Midway Crater. This is one of the truly unique experience to be had in this area. It is a lump in the landscape with a hole on top and a hot spring inside. In 1995, a tunnel going into the crater was dug. It is now one of the few places in Utah to offer scuba diving year round. JE and I spent an hour luxuriating in the warm water. We were the only ones in the crater, besides a few divers below. It was peaceful to just float.

When we got home, we were both so tired that we went straight to sleep. Now I'm up and it's 3:30 AM.