Utah Redemption: Wasatch Mountains Edition

It is true that we got a little sick of being in Utah for several weeks on end, back when we went straight from surgery and repairs to an epic Utah Redemption Tour in the red rocks. But that had nothing to do with Utah and everything to do with fatigue. Whenever we return to Utah, we feel like we're coming home. We've established some very small, rather odd roots here, and the community has made it easy to do so. This year, we've been trying really hard to make sure Utah has grand adventures and not just adulting and reality checks. That's how our Utah Redemption Tour came about in the first place. We wanted to offset our axle appointment – and the flood recovery of 2 years ago – with some fun.

After the Redemption Tour, we took our burnt out booties out of Utah, to spend some time in California and Nevada. We 100% made the right choice, because by the time we returned to Utah for our next axle appointment, we were happy to be back. We resumed business as usual, using Rollin' Home RV Park as our staging area and then displacing ourselves into an Airbnb for a few days, while the guys at Trailer Parts Wholesale carried on with their detective work on our axles. That whole story, including our real-time axle update, was in the last post. If you missed it, here's the link.

Usually, after we pick up our rig from a repair appointment, we like to spend a few days in the general vicinity so we can settle back in and make sure everything seems to be working properly. This also helps us avoid long drive days when there's a chance we might get our trailer back later than expected. The last couple of times we've needed repairs in Utah, it was still the off-season and lots of campgrounds were still closed. This was our first time getting to experience Utah recreation in full summer swing, which meant many more campgrounds to choose from. No need to cram ourselves into the Springville KOA like we usually do! This time, we reserved a full hookup campsite overlooking the water at Deer Creek State Park. This would put us right in the Wasatch Mountain Range, a recreational paradise, and we couldn't wait.

Driving up US189 through the heart of the Wasatch Range, the scenery was breathtaking, but even more exciting was seeing just how much people in the area prioritize the outdoors. There were so many stops along the way with scenic vistas, hiking trails, and activities on the Provo River. The opportunities continued as we approached Deer Creek Reservoir. First, we crossed over the dam. Next was the main entrance to the park, which had the boat launch and campground loops. Further up the road were ample day-use and beach areas, boat rentals, adventure parks, and a lakeside restaurant. We loved our campsite, a large pull-thru sitting on top of the hill in the Fox Den loop, with mountains to one side and views of the lake to the other.

We only had a limited time in the area, so we knew that most of the state park would remain unseen by us, but we had paths and picnic areas dotted with tons of wildflowers just beyond our campground loop. It had been a long time since I had ample space for my morning campground walks, and the views were the icing on the cake.

We could have spent weeks here and not even left the state park, but we were itching to travel further north. We've been slowly but surely visiting all of the destinations we had planned for our big Canyon Trip of 2020 and had tackled most of Utah, but one place in particular had continued to elude us: Utah Olympic Park in Park City. Finally, we were in the area, during the right season to visit. We're big fans of mountain adventure parks, and after 5 years of waiting patiently to visit this one, our hopes were high.

We each purchased gold passes, which allow for unlimited use of most of the park's activities for a 3.5 hour session. Activities include the alpine slide, 2 extreme summer tubing slopes, 2 ziplines, a discovery course, and a children's obstacle course/playground tower. We went during the morning session, from 9:30am-1pm. Given that it was a Saturday morning and the weather was perfect, we expected more crowds, but we barely had to wait in line for any of the activities. Arriving right at our session start time helped, too, because more people came in around 10 or 11am. You don't need to get a gold pass to enjoy the activities. Some people just bought single ride tickets.

First up for us was the alpine slide, and you might know why. We wanted to get a ride in as early as possible, and we thought we had great timing when only a few people were in front of us in line, and all of them looked like they'd be relatively speedy. As you may know, the rider gets to control their speed on alpine slides, so if someone is more timid, they might pull back on their lever to reduce their speed or even stop. We typically go fairly fast, but we don't feel the need to go full throttle, especially on an unfamiliar course. We expected a breezy first run...but looks can be deceiving. Girl in front of me got scared, slowed way down, and I got stuck behind her. A couple minutes later, Anthony got stuck behind me. We tried to stay back as to not pressure her to go faster than she felt comfortable. It was our first ride of the day and we had as many re-rides as we wanted over the next few hours. In the meantime, we were going slow enough for me to take a picture of us on the track, which is against the rules - and usually a rule I follow - but we were practically at a standstill at that point and I wanted to capture the memory for our future Summer to Remember gallery! We did abide by the "stay 80ft apart" rule, though.

We came back around to the alpine slide later in the day. The line was longer, and yet, the speeds were way speedier! We gave ourselves a little more space between us and the guy in front of us, which allowed us to breeze down the track at our preferred pace. This was when we really got a sense of the track, and it's a good one. It's the first metal track we've ridden, and as such, it's covered with sun shades. The downside to this is that we can't enjoy the mountain views on the way down, but the plus side is that the metal allows the sleds to glide really smoothly. The banks of the curves were engineered for safety, even for the thrill-seekers. In fact, we got the feeling that they had a really skilled engineer design this track. Should we be surprised at the venue of a past Olympic Games? They probably know some good slope designers.

The other activities we partook in were both ziplines and the extreme tubing. Well, I only did the shorter of the two tube hills because it was steep and bumpy. My stomach didn't like the steepness and my permanent coccyx injury didn't like the bumps. I was happy sitting the taller slope out and being Anthony's spectator. The tubing hills are literal Olympic-sized Nordic ski jumps, and riders can reach speeds up to 50mph! The surface is covered with a special plastic that resembles snow when the athletes train on it...and when us non-athletes sit on our butts on it. The staff need to spray the slopes with sprinklers every few runs to keep the friction down.

The ziplines also have a slightly-more-moderate and slightly-more-extreme version. We each did both, which start from different heights and send riders soaring above the park.

After a satisfying share of the thrills, we stopped over at the venue museums and had lunch at the cafe while we waited for the start time of part 2 of our excursion: the guided venue tour, which we purchased separately from our activities passes. This tour gave us a behind-the-curtain look at some of the facilities that were used in the 2002 Olympics and continue to be used for training today. You may also have noticed the giant 2034 written on one of the Nordic ski jumps. The games are coming back to the Salt Lake region! Because the venue has become a permanent structure for athletic training, it's cost-effective to have the area host the games once again. Of course, some updates will need to be made, but Salt Lake City was one of the Olympics where the host city actually made their money back and turned a profit. This doesn't usually happen!

This is also probably a good time for me to make a confession. I love the Winter Olympics, and loved them even more when I was growing up. The games were my obsession that I looked forward to every 4 years, and they always seemed to fall during years I desperately needed to witness inspiration and community. Where my passion for the games stems from, I don't know. I do no winter sports myself, but growing up I loved watching figure skating, and in time, that blossomed into watching all of the sports. 2002 was the year, too. Sarah Hughes won gold in women's figure skating. Alexei Yagudin won for men's, and 13-year-old Nicole just thought he was the best looking specimen of a skater she had ever seen. Bronze medalist Timothy Goebel wasn't half-bad either, and he was deemed the Quad King, holding the accolade for the first figure skater to successfully complete a quadruple jump in competition, and he brought his prowess to the Games, hitting a quad Salchow in a combination - the first time ever done at an Olympic Games. Now, of course, the standards have been raised, and a quad Axel - 4.5 rotations instead of 4 - has been accomplished in international competition. All eyes are on Ilia Malinin, the Quad God, with some predicting he might be the first skater to land a quintuple in competition.

2002 was also the Olympic debut of short track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who was an absolute force, winning a gold and silver. I loved him before he was insanely famous and constantly getting sponsors.

That year, the US came in third place for most gold medals won. Not our most decorated Olympics, but we had a lot of shining stars. Skier Bode Miller won double silvers in giant slalom and combined. The US swept the podium in men's snowboard halfpipe - and this was before the master Shaun White burst onto the Olympic scene 4 years later! And for women's halfpipe, Kelly Clark became the first US woman to ever win an Olympic gold in the sport.

The Salt Lake City Olympic events were spread out all over the region, but Park City was home for the sled sports (skeleton, bobsledding, and luge), ski jumping, and the Nordic combined. As part of the tour, we got to see the training pool for ski jumping, where the park also hosts freestyle jump shows. Then we took a shuttle bus to the top of the hill and learned the ins and outs of the sled tracks. As we expected, the engineering of the tracks is top-notch. No two tracks are the same, so the athletes cannot memorize a specific track and know what curves are coming up next. The park offers summer bobsledding to the public, where visitors can pay $100 to ride with a trained bobsledder. If the G-forces of the K64 ski jump hill were too much for me, I don't even want to know what 74mph bobsledding would do! But it was fun to watch the less sensitive people ride the track.

You (maybe) heard it here first, but the next Winter Olympics plans to introduce the first solo bobsled competition for females, so they have more chance of getting on the podium because there is no 4-person female bobsledding event. The monobob, as they call it, will mean that the solo bobsledder will need to completely man her sleigh. In the multi-person events, braking and steering are done by two separate athletes.

The 2002 Olympics was unique in that it was one of the first major international events since 9/11, so we got to hear about all the extra security precautions that needed to be taken. Spectators weren't allowed to park near the venue, so they had to walk up a long, steep hill in freezing temperatures just to make it to the stands. Talk about devotion! Perhaps I'm not alone in my Winter Olympics fandom.

A gorgeous, scenic campsite and an amazing mountain adventure where I got to geek out about all things winter Olympics. This was certainly looking like a successful start to even more Utah Redemption. With a few more days camping in the Wasatch Range, we added a couple more excursions to our agenda, and we expected them to be equally incredible. Only, did we set our expectations too high? Join us in the next post, as we go from mountain summits to the low low underground, and perhaps take our moods down with us.

To be continued.