Fort Bridger, 'Mountain Man Rendezvous'

29 Aug 2014

Arrived at Fort Bridger airfield after hours last night, and found a high fence and keypad entry gate....  Called the local sheriff and got the PIN.  Great place to camp, with a distant view.

Set up and flew, but no spectacular scenery here.

A truck stop on the I-80 interstate.

There are so many good truck stops with all services,

along that amazing interstate highway system.

Wind turbines up close and flying downwind of them to check out the turbulence???

Not bad at all, just a couple of bumps.

 Greeting a Union Pacific train.

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Campers gathering for the 'Mountain Man Rendezvous'

Costumes everywhere.

Pretenders all.....
No real 'mountain men' here at all
Just genteel people dressing up in costumes and pretending.....
To be more real would need copious amounts of gutrot whiskey and uncouth men,
then all the rest of 'genuine' would follow.....
(...but this now Mormon country, so no heavy drinking, and only good manners these days...)
I guess the real mountain men these days aren't here,
but with work boots on, are drilling gas wells or whatever.....

And merchandising everywhere......

Miles of merchandising, that's the main show.....

Lots of pretend stuff....

Weird stuff......

And weirder....

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The muzzle loader shooting competition was the most interesting of all.

They spend most of their time loading and tamping each shot.

Lots of smoke and black powder explosions...

Lots of ladies trying to show up the men

When that Second Amendment to the Constitution was written,

"...that all men shall have the right to bear arms..."

the arms in question were single shot muzzle loaders like these.

I reckon that if those 'founding fathers' who wrote that amendment,

could see what's developed in the American gun culture today,

they'd write it differently.......
Can't do a mass shooting with a muzzle loader....

Wyoming Rodeo

30 Aug 2014

I'd heard about a rodeo being held this weekend at Evanston, Wyoming.
Well, if Wyoming can't do a rodeo, then who can??  Wyoming has a buck jumper as the logo on all the license plates, and state emblems, so I had to go a see it for real.

This turned out to be a very small rodeo, but definitely genuine.  There are no 'pretenders' who get on a bucking bronc or a mean bull and take their chances....   I had hoped for a local amateur rodeo, with the local cowboys out to strut their stuff, like I remember from my childhood, but this was a small professional travelling rodeo.  (I guess their's no way these days to expect such a show unless there's significant money involved......)  It was a good show, but I most enjoyed the audience, who were distinctly local ranchers and farmers having a fun night out.  Quite amazing that none of them were obviously drunk, which was quite different from what I remembered of other rodeos.....  But then I realized that this Mormon country, so that explains it......

 An example of steer wrestling gone wrong.......

It was too dark for photos by the bull riding, 

and anyhow, 

most fell off far away, just outside the chutes.....

Old Roosevelt Airstrip, Utah

Had a beautiful drive this morning over the Wasatch Range.  Beautiful scenery, and lots of camping places, both formal campgrounds and bush camping.  Lots of campers on this last holiday weekend of the summer.

I don't know how I found out about the Old Roosevelt airstrip, now abandoned, but managed to find it with iPad Maps.  Turns out that it's being used today by some kids for a drag strip.  They won't be here tomorrow, so I'll have it to myself.

Now listening to FM 104.5,  'Armed American Radio'.  Continuous angry rants justifying concealed carry, 2nd Amendment justification, etc, etc; all the adverts are for pistols and holsters.......  What a contrast with the mellow Prairie Home Companion on NPR earlier in the day.....

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Next morning, lots of smoke haze, so no use trying to fly to the Uinta Mountains, so hit the road.

Huntington Airfield, Utah

A very scenic drive through a long deep valley to Price.
On out to Huntington airfield.  Looks just right, unattended and quiet, but good facilities, with toilets, shower, and fridge, so cold beer tonight.

A fella doing maintenance told me about a Back Country Flyers gathering here coming up on the last weekend of September.  Maybe up to 60 aircraft, all who are interested in back country flying, and know lots of unmarked strips round about.  Sounds just great, so I'll make a point to be here for that.

Too windy and lots of smoke haze to be worth a flight today....  So started on studying for the written test for my Light Sport License, been putting that off, lazy......

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Next day, flew back up to Price and Helper, and the mines and power stations there.

Helper was named that because that's where the railroad stored extra 'helper' engines to help heavy trains over the mountains.

Price, Utah

Helper, Utah.
The name of the town comes from the 'helper' engines
that are added here to pull the trains over the mountains.

Lots of gorges to get lost in....

 Coal-fired power station nestled in the valleys

Golf course nestled in the valley

Golf courses fitting in where they can fit.

This looks like a movie set way out in the desert on it's own.
Only facades with nothing behind.....

Scott Butterfield has left a new comment on your post "Huntington Airfield, Utah": 

That last picture isn't a movie set, it's a shooting range. It's set up for cowboy action shooting. The facades are all old west buildings and it's all designed to give a nice old west flavor to the shooting venue. 

Green River, Utah

03 Sep 2014

Green River is now a very run-down town, with lots of boarded-up and empty buildings.
Some rather substantial buildings tell of more prosperous times, and several ups and downs.....

This was an impressive bank building in it's day.

Lastly a T-shirt shop, but it's also since folded (pun intended)

It was a very active railway town until the focus moved to Helper in 1892......
Uranium mining nearby was active in the 40's, 50's, and 60's, but is all moth-balled these days.....
From 1964 to 1973 the US air Force tested 141 nuclear capable missiles from a nearby launching area, but all deserted now.....
Now the town is a fuel and rest stop for traffic on the long I-70 interstate highway.
Tourists in motorhomes, campers, motorcycles and even bicycles stop to refuel and a cool drink.
Foreign languages heard in the Subway....

But it's an ideal base for me to fly to the San Rafael Swell just to the west of here. 

Be prepared for lots and lots of photos of rocks for awhile now.

But they are spectacular rocks!

The eastern edge of the Swell

So many layers showing totally different drainage when they were laid down
over millions of years.
Who can imagine that this is only 6000 yrs old, and all happened during Noah's flood??.....

I-70 interstate cutting through the Swell

Some of it is pure art work.

I wanted to hike one of those narrow canyons, and at gate off the highway,
someone coming out said there'd be plenty space to turn this rig around.
But there sure wasn't.....
I shouldn't have been so lazy, and unhooked the trailer out there....
It took quite an effort to turn it around, assisted by Eddy and his dog Sabre from Albuquerque.......

Free at last.


This is the canyon that I wanted to hike.
Really needed a fish-eye lens to do it justice....

Petroglyphs from  Indian gatherings here long ago.

I like to fly my shadow along a road, and surprise motorists....

A cattle watering point, water trucked in.
This is even more barren than most of Australia......

The view from my little aircraft.
Flying the Green River canyon.

 Green River airfield.

There's only this small factory on the airfield,
but they sure use a lot of carbon monoxide.....
Quite strange.....
It seems that they plate nickel onto carbon fibre,
sounds like a very delicate and high tech process.....
One night they worked all night,
accompanied by loud, fast pounding, rock music....