| Another 70 miles of canyons, cliffs and barren land eventually brought
us to civilisation again. Well of a fashion. But we did begin to see
cultivated fields and evidence of habitation. We were now at the southern
end of where the Mormons settled and evidence came to light in the small
towns we passed as we took the US89 north avoiding the interstate. We paused
for lunch in Manti and took this shot of the Mormon temple there. An
impressive building overlooking the town and the valley. |  |
 |
A bit further on we detoured through Spring City. There must have been many
hopes of grandeur because we have found many 'cities' in the US which would
be hard pressed to be villages at home. Most of the buildings in Spring
City are 'listed'. This small log house was typical of the style built in
the early days out here. I suspect this was a modern copy possibly on
an original site. |
| This style of house was also very common in the west with the
porch to give shelter from the sun. This was known as an 'I' house and there
were variants on this basic design.. |  |
 |
Eventually we reached Provo where we planned to spend several days. This was
a view of the Mormon temple at Provo. It was obviously very busy given the number
of cars in the car park. It was quite difficult to find a clear shot but I
liked this one with the mountains in the background. The setting in Provo
seems quite idyllic. |
| Provo is the home of Brigham Young University (better known as BYU). It is
a well spread out campus and features many departments. In
amongst it all is a small but fine Earth Sciences museum which houses one of
the largest collections of dinosaur skeletons in the US. I've no idea what this one
is but I wouldn't want to have meet him on a dark night. |  |
 |
In contrast this one seemed quite meek and mild despite the bony plates
protecting his body. The lighted window behind
looked onto a workshop where there were people busy recovering more fossils
by grinding away at the sandstone which encases them.. |
| And overlooking the whole city is a majestic collection of
mountains. However we did note that these were nowhere near as clear as
those we had seen further south despite being much closer. This is the
result of an atmospheric 'inversion' effect which retains the heavier carbon
particles as a smog reducing both air quality and visibility. This is partly
because the whole valley is surrounded by mountains which keep the poor air
in. My allergies also kicked in in complaint. |  |
We had come to Provo because some folk that I had corresponded with over
several years live in this area and I planned to make contact with them. Thus we
had several interesting chats with locals about the area, the Mormons and Family
History. |