Utah Olympic Park: Park City Utah

A few weeks ago, my boss was invited for a corporate event to try out all of the fun activities at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City to potentially have a company part up there.  She couldn't go that evening so my coworker Kenny and I got to go instead.  It was INCREDIBLE.  I had so so much fun and would love to go back there.  Everything was free-all the activities, fully catered with wonderful food, plus and open bar and the ski jumping show at the end.  If ever you come to Utah and visit Park City, go here!

Zip line fun!

 Jumped off this 60ft tower.  Kind of like bungee jumping, without the bounce.

 Best ropes course I've ever been on.  These are always my favorite.  I love being 60ft up, only connected by a cable, and maneuvering myself across obstacles with the only way to get down is by completion.  Such a great challenge.  

 Ski jumps used in the winter.

 Alpine slides are always fun.

 Ski jumping team.  These guys were amazing.  They were doing all of this in 60mph wind which is crazy dangerous to jump in!

-Leah

First Raft Trip of the Year

Last weekend we headed down south to raft the upper portion of the San Juan River.  It wasn't the most exciting river but it had beautiful desert scenery and incredible petroglyphs and pictographs.  My favorite part was seeing the River House used 2000 years ago by ancient Navajo, Anasazi, and Pueblo Native Americans.

This was also my first real chance to row.  I rowed last year through flat water, the occasional ripples, and one significant rapid.  This time though, I rowed pretty much the whole way.  I'm hoping it will have prepared me to maybe row a bit down the Middle Fork of the Salmon when we go up there in June, but that's a pretty crazy river so we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

 Loading up Thursday night.

 Unloading Friday morning.

 A few of the MANY pictographs.

 Desert Views and the San Juan River.

 Amazing wall.

 The River House

Please credit me back to this blog if you use any of my photos!
-Leah

Arches National Park

On our Moab trip a couple of weekends ago for the Half Marathon, Erik and I  made a stop at Arches National Park.  We didn't do much besides stop at Balancing Rock and then hike to Delicate Arch because we were both pretty exhausted and ready to get home.  I'm sure another Arches visit is soon approaching so I'm not too worried about not getting to see the whole park.  For now, here are some pictures from our brief excursion.

Balancing Rock  

On the trail to Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch

Side View

Erik and me under the Arch

-Leah

*Please credit me back to this blog if you use any of my photos!

Moab Trip - Canyonlands National Park

Last weekend I headed south to Moab to run in the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  Sadly, I switched to running the 5 mile race because I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle running a half and then hiking afterward in the parks.  I know, I know, I'm a quitter.  I regret it.  But I have two other half marathons on the docket this year to make up for it.

Moab Utah is one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Seriously.  Here are some pictures to show you.  The lighting isn't the best because we were there in the middle of the day and it was pretty windy and kicking up a lot of dust.  But still.

Mortimer and Merrimac - named after the iron clad war ships during the US Civil War.

From a distance

 At Window Arch

 Looking through.

 The White Rim

The Green River

Have a beautiful weekend!

-Leah

Fly Fishing - Flaming Gorge

This weekend was the big fly fishing outing.  I have grown up around fly fishing as my dad is an avid fisherman and taught both of my brothers.  When I was young, I didn't want to go anywhere near a fishing pole.  I blame this on my dad always threatening to make me clean the fish, and chasing me around with fish heads when I was little and he'd come back from a trip.

For the past few years though, I told him I wanted to go fishing.  Unfortunately, I don't think he took me seriously after hearing me say "no way" for so many years.  That led to me going with Erik on the Green River near Flaming Gorge National Park here in north-eastern Utah.  We had a guide take us down on a boat all day Saturday and he taught me the basics of casting with a fly rod which is very different from my past fishing experiences.  It is a lot more difficult but also a lot more engaging and fun.

It was raining off and on all week in the area leading up to our trip.  We expected much the same on Saturday but we came prepared for snow just in case.  Good thing.  We woke up to this.  A fresh ten inches at the lodge.

It was snowing pretty heavy when we were getting on the boat down by the dam but eventually let up and made for some incredibly beautiful scenery.

Flaming Gorge Dam

 I think this is my favorite photo from the bunch.

 Brown trout. This guy was my favorite.

Erik and his second biggest fish. 

 We're looking a little chunky with all our layers.

Finished off our six hour day on the river in below freezing conditions with one of these babies - The Everything Burger.  And yes, I ate the whole thing.

 Sheep's trail overpass looking down in the Gorge - day after the river.

Even though it was very very very cold, I wasn't able to actually wade in the river, and the fishing wasn't that great, I still LOVED it, which kind of surprised me.  The feeling that you get when you see a fish take the fly in the crystal clear water and the process of reeling him in is wonderful.  I can't wait until it's warm enough that I can really utilize my waders and reenact the epic scene from "A River Runs Through It" where Brad Pitt catches that humongous fish.

I feel so blessed to be able to do all these new adventurous things in my life.  Blessed that I'm healthy enough, adventurous enough, fortunate enough, and that I live in such a spectacular world.

-Leah