To The West...

So Monday was President's Day. Kenneth didn't have school and I, of course, no longer work! This is how our conversation went that morning:

Me: Hey Kenneth, what should we do today?

Kenneth: I don't know, what do you want to do?

Me: I don't know! That's why I'm asking you!

Kenneth: I don't know, what do you want to do?

Me: Oh my gosh! Just pick something!

Kenneth: Ok. Let's go to the west.

Me: What?

Kenneth: Let's go to the west.

Me: What does that even mean???

Yes, that was our conversation. Lo and behold we DID end up going "to the west" for President's Day.

We got ready and packed up our car with Danny and camera gear and began heading "to the west." We stopped first near Saltare at some abandoned building and trolley cart with graffiti all over them. We ran out and took some much needed family pictures (we're really pathetic...we don't even have pictures of Danny up in our house yet!!). Here are some samplers:











The next stop on our journey "to the west" was supposed to be a stop at the Great Salt Lake for more pictures, but alas, it was Danny's naptime, so we didn't think we would get any good pictures out of him...next time.

We continued on our journey and stopped at the Salt Flats. The flats were covered with water, but that made for some beautiful pictures also.





Next we headed to Wendover, NV for a lunch stop at Subway and then continued "to the west" to Goshute Cave. Kenneth's dad, who used to work with the Young Men of the church used to take the boys to Goshute cave fairly regularly. They would usually arrive after dark and could never seem to find the cave entrance. We got directions from Kenneth's dad who told us that as long as we got there during daylight hours, we would have no problem finding the cave. This was not the case!

We drove along a dirt road back and forth several times until we finally spotted the cave. We ventured onto a secondary dirt road (which was covered in snow). Kenneth likes to think that our 2-wheel drive car is actually a 4-wheel drive truck...which as you can imagine, gets us in trouble sometimes. So, we naturally get stuck in the snow, and Kenneth has to put on our chains...well, actually just chain because one of them was broken. ;) We finally get the chain on and continue heading up the snow-covered dirt road. We finally get to the top of the road, get out of the car, get Danny strapped into his pack and head towards where we see the cave opening is. The only problem was that there was a stream between us and the cave. This shouldn't be a problem normally as we always cross streams, BUT this particular stream was at the bottom of a 20ft. deep ravine that we couldn't find a way around. SO, back to the car!

We then headed back to the main dirt road, and found another secondary snow-covered dirt road! We headed up this road until we eventually got stuck...again! We decided (or rather, Kenneth decided) that we would ditch the car and continue on foot! Kenneth assured me that it wasn't far to the cave entrance...WRONG! This is according to me...Kenneth still maintains that it was a short hike. (Michael and Kim...you understand what I'm saying!)

Our stuck car as seen from the cave (click picture to enlarge).


We finally arrive at the cave entrance.




We spent a couple hours exploring the cave and taking some pictures. Here are some of our favorites:










(Kenneth has the FREAKIEST eyes when he is in a cave...they scare me.)


Exiting the cave

The view upon exiting.

After we left the cave, we hiked down to our car, finally got it unstuck (right before dark) and headed home. Overall, it was a fun journey "to the west".