Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Fremont Indian State Park

Our family escaped from our own life for a while and headed down south for the long weekend.  Todd also used this time to scout out the area for an activity with his YM for this summer.  So that meant lots of time in the car, but our children were promised a reward for their patience with a trip to Big Rock Candy Mountain.

When Todd was a child he used to visit Big Rock Candy Mountain often, and would tell me about the animals they had, the way he used to tease his brother, Spencer, that the water coming from the spring was really lemonade.  Then Spencer tasted it and, of course, the reason it is yellow is because of the sulfur and he would taste something terrible.  That's what brother's do.

I also realized that when we are children, we truly think that almost anything is AMAZING if it has a cool enough name.  Todd had talked this place up like it was something magnificent to behold.  His childhood memories must have been clinging to fun memories more than details of the actual location.

There are no longer animals there, something about "cruelty" and "cages."  The lemonade springs of yore aren't brimming forth with yellow water, it's more like a small trickling stream and you can't walk up to it, like he used to.  There is a small cafe and motel with a gift shop.  Winter months, they don't get much business, so the gas station across the street was closed.

Our kids just couldn't understand why there was no candy and Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Thank heaven the Fremont Indian Museum was open to visitors, and they had candy!  It was the best $6 we spent the whole weekend.  We had the entire visitors museum to ourselves, along with the trails and the weather was on our side.  They have an interactive children's exhibit that we had to peel our kids away from so we could go outside on the hikes to see the different rock art.


 Once we got outside, the kids were in heaven.  The trails are clearly marked and very easy for kids to maneuver. Connor says that it was "so amazing.  It had kid stuff and I got to make so much good music.  It sounded good."  The kids were more interested in finding the markers that tell you where to look for the art than actually looking at the art.  Todd and I laughed thinking that we were just looking at some teenage Indian's graffiti and in a couple hundred years, the names etched into trees or graffiti on the backs of warehouses will be the thing we ooh and aah over.

We got to explore a Pit House (this is us inside the pit house).  Connor wants me to say that "It was so amazing, I thought that it was a cave.  I don't know it Indians have pets.  I don't know if my mom knows if they have pets."  While we were down inside the pit house, Connor asked if we could live in one of these instead of our house.  Todd and I joked that someday we might have to, if things don't turn around soon.

Even this little guy trotted along the trails. The remainder of our time was spent:
Battling a mouse
Swimming
Connor playing Sonic the Hedgehog
Scrabble
Eating junk food, lots and lots of junk food
Reading through old scrapbooks and journals that belonged to Todd's grandpa
Napping

It's nice to have a place to go to where we can escape the city life and be forced to be - somewhat- unplugged.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

I love family vacations...and some of my best memories of family vacations were smaller vacations where we explored different parts of our home state. Once, we were heading to a ghost town near Promontory Point. Well, that ghost town turned out to be an old house foundation and nothing more. But on the way, we stumbled upon a deserted and not often visited section of the Great Salt Lake. The rocks looked like mother-of-pearl because they were covered with hardened layers of salt. Either some algae in the water or the way the light was refracting off the water made the lake look purple. It felt to me like something out of The Chronicles of Narnia. It was so beautiful. And my brothers and sisters had so much fun. We laughed together and played around the lake. It was seriously idyllic. One of those moments that you can't purposefully create or recreate...they just happen and you have to enjoy and appreciate them as they come.

kodyandsabrina said...

Hey Girly, I absolutely LOVE, LOVE the picture of your family!