Hill Air Force Base – Salt Lake City Utah
June 18th, 2022
We left Moab Utah Sunday the 12 and headed to Salt Lake City staying at the Hill Air Force Base. We arrived around 1:30pm. The camp office is closed on weekends; we knew our spot so we just occupied it. The camp host (full time RV’r in the camp) came over later and checked us in. The campground is nice and small, but the sites are close together. We are on the end of a row so we only have only one close neighbor.
Hill Air Force Base is located Just north of Salt Lake City Utah. It is the Air Force’s second largest base by population and geographical size. The base is also the largest single-site employer in the state of Utah. We listen to F-35’s flying over all day long. At first it was cool, then we just learned to ignore it as most others here do.
The drive up was scenic. Utah is one giant dry red rock with canyons and deserts full of trails for mountain biking and four wheeling.
Click here for some travel photos…
It was hot when we arrived on Sunday (95) then it turned to rain in the evening. Monday was cool, high of 75 and a low of 55 with a bunch of wind. I took the truck in for an oil change and tire rotation and Rene’e got her hair done. Before we left Bowling Green Rene’e asked her hair dresser what colors and manufactures of hair stuff she used. She gave Rene’e three choices and one of them worked out here in Utah, cool.
On the news this eve we saw that Yellowstone National Park received a bunch of flooding from heavy rain and above average snow-melt. In fact, several roads were washed out along with rock slides. They have closed all entrances going into the park and are evacuating the northern sections. We are going there in a couple of weeks… not sure if it will be open or not. I suspect a few parts will be open but most be closed… and for some time.
On Tuesday we went to went to Red Butte Gardens at the University of Utah. It has 100 + acres, including display gardens and walking paths where Rene’e was able to use her electric wheelchair. It is the largest botanical garden in the Inter-mountain West. Lots of Roses and other flowers.
Click here for some flower photos…
We also visited Tracy Aviary at Liberty Park; the oldest aviary in the U.S. features extensive collections, educational programs and exhibits of more than 130 different species of birds.
On Wednesday, we rested, washed our rugs and did grocery shopping at the Commissary (large grocery store for military members on the base). The cost of grocery’s were at least 60% of what you would pay at Walmart, etc. We stocked up for the next couple of weeks as we will be at a National Park and at Jackson Wyoming, a tourist town.
On Thursday we went to see some wild horses at the Onaqui Mountains Herd Management Area (on Renee’s list). It is located a few miles south/east of Tooele Utah and stretches for 30 miles. We drove along the historic Pony Express Road (mostly gravel). We also saw some other wildlife along the way. Very cool place. The horses are part of the Onaqui herd which is relatively large, around 450 horses. While there we saw a small group of people from a volunteer organization that said they were managing the “reproduction” of these horses. They had clip boards and two had rifles, probably loaded with some type of medicine. The horses were fighting, jumping around, rolling in the dirt, having a good time… maybe thinking about reproduction… haha.
Click here for some photos…
Friday and Saturday were work days, laundry, washing the truck and camper (I seem to be doing this a lot lately…) and getting ready to leave on Sunday heading to Grand Tetons, which is full of folks who’s “Plan-A” of visiting Yellowstone has fallen though due to the flooding and road infrastructure collapse. Will see how it goes; at lease we have reservations there for a week.
Catch you later!
