happy pioneer day

It's late but it's been a while since I posted anything, so I'm going to talk about what we did today and save yesterday's hike for later.  We learned today that we need to get back into the habit of preparing for weekend activities ahead of time, and not leaving decision-making and organizing until the last minute.  We were pretty good about that last summer but for some reason, not so much this year, resulting in late start times, hiking in the heat of the day and missed opportunities picnic pavilion-wise.

For instance, this morning (Sunday) I announced that although I would like to go MTBing, I was leery of falling on my still-present bruises so perhaps we could do something else.  H suggested going to "the beach" (which means finding a reservoir or lake where we can swim/fish/sit and watch the water/etc.) and I suggested a hike.  So then we flailed around far too long before not coming up with a hike we wanted to do - despite the fact that just yesterday we were marveling at all the hiking in the area we have yet to do.  We decided to skip the hike and go to the beach instead.  Somehow, we managed to load up the car and hit the road within twenty minutes of making that decision, but then we had to stop and get sandwiches from Subway, and then we had to go have breakfast at the Cottonwood Cafe where we totally looked like tourists, reading our guidebooks and Gazetteer, trying to figure out what reservoir we wanted to visit.

We settled on the Jordanelle Reservoir State Park, on the far side of Park City, the largest in the area and very popular.  The Jordanelle has two areas and we decided to try Rock Cliff because it was less developed and certain to be less busy.  Rock Cliff is in the narrow arm of the reservoir, more wetlands than open water. We saw numerous osprey and sandhill cranes but what we didn't see were any covered picnic pavilions and since the morning was quickly running into noontime, we knew we needed shade.  So off we went to Hailstone, the more developed Jordanelle S.P. campground.  Hailstone has a sandy beach and a marina and a restaurant and over 200 RV/tent campsites and lots and lots of picnic pavilions ... all of which were full, of course.  We drove through, realized that we'd like to come back (and rent a party boat!) but early next time.*

We ended up at Rockport State Park, on a smaller reservoir in Wanship.  We'd gone there once last year and ended up sitting at the same covered picnic table.  The reservoir was pretty busy with powerboats, jetskis, small sailboats and catamarans; folks were fishing and swimming and floating around, enjoying the sunshiny day (temperatures were in the very pleasant mid-80s).  We'd remembered to bring our swimsuits and ventured in for a dip; although the top six inches were pleasant, the water got cold quickly and neither of us stayed in too long.  H got out his fishing gear and cast from the shore for some time as well - got his very first Utah fish too, a nice little bass!

The one that didn't get away!

We stayed at Rockport for about five hours, finally dragging ourselves away and back to the hot (96 F) Salt Lake Valley.  Now the sun is down and the lunatic neighbors have begun lighting off their fireworks.  B is doing remarkably well (she takes her Benadryl with peanut butter) but I'll be glad when fireworks season is over in the next day or two.

*  Oh, and were we ever happy to have our state park pass what with these failed attempts!