Priceless

Hey Folks,

When we last left you I spoke of our upcoming trip to Price, Utah.  The gas company we are working for here in Salt Lake serves the little town of Price and actually many more Utah towns; even into Wyoming.  They all have to be surveyed so they sent a crew of 6 of their guys plus yours truly for a 4 day survey this past week.  Price is not a big place and not fancy but still has the personality of a small desert town with a wide Main Street, angled parking and the namesake theater.  It’s about 120 miles southeast of SLC on the other side of the Wasatch range – the mountains that frame Salt Lake on its east side.

 

The only green you see in Price is where the sprinkler hits so it’s a combination of irrigated residential areas and green farm land immediately adjacent to brown scrub that didn’t get to have a drink this year.  Not much rain comes down in the high desert.  It was a pretty straight forward survey and by Thursday we had finished the job.  For those of you new to the blog who may wonder what it is I do on a survey I wrote about it last year.  You can find the post from Dalton, GA here - "Walkin' the line". 

 

Downtown Price, Utah. 

The real story though is where we stayed.  The gas crew stayed in a hotel in Price but we have the benefit of having a house on wheels.  I looked on-line for a good spot to park LuLu for the week but Price didn’t have many options except for an “RV Park” behind a hotel which was really just a dirt extension of their parking lot.  Instead, we chose to stay at Scofield State Park, up the road from Price and way up the mountain. 

The Schofield State Park teepees are for rent.  30 skins a night.

Click for a larger pic to see LuLu.

As you can see from the pictures this place is gorgeous.  The reservoir with the same name serves as a source of drinking water for the state and also home to Tiger Trout, Rainbow Trout and Cutthroat Trout.  It’s one of the main fishin’ holes for miles around.  Various other four footed critters call it home as well.

Margos' companion for the week.

This one's for North Carolina gas man and blog reader Mark.  They say they've heard of you.

When I say the state park is way up the mountain I mean 7,600 feet up.  It’s quite remote. There was no Internet or even cell phone service so Margo had to do without.  She caught up on her reading, stalked the local wildlife, and baked cookies. She had to use the high altitude recipe.  You’ve all seen the high altitude directions but I bet you never had to use them.  They worked wonderfully by the way. 

The strangest thing by far though was on Tuesday evening.  A weather system had been forecast to blow through.  When I left Price after that days’ survey work it was sunny and 73 degrees.  Making my way up the mountain I noticed the thermometer dropping, and dropping and dropping.  When I pulled into our campsite it was 34 degrees and snow was falling.  Now realize last Tuesday was JUNE 17^TH.  I don’t recall us leaving the northern hemisphere so very strange indeed.  Add to this the electric power was out at the campground.  We were on battery power and doing fine but still a bit disconcerting.  Let’s see – a winter storm blowing in summer, no cell service, batteries that would make it through the night but not through the next day….

It's snowing in June!!!!!

Same pic as above - 24 hours later.

Picnic table date book - 4 days from summer solstice.

We drove up the road and found a Division of Natural Resources employee and had him contact the state park people then to add a little insurance onto that we found cell service another few miles further and called the local power company ourselves.  Within a few hours the power was back on, our batteries were recharging and we were watching the snow come down.  Who needs TV…..

 

As I write this on Friday afternoon we’re back at the KOA in sunny 90 degree Salt Lake City, connected again to the world, with plans to hit the farmers market on Saturday morning to resupply.  We also plan to take a look at the Natural History Museum in town and of course finish off those cookies.

So in a nutshell:

• Five nights at an incredible state park… $25.00 per night.
• Forty hours chasing the gas line in Price… a weeks pay earned.
• Snow in June… PRICEless.