Dead Horse Point State Park

Utah is crammed full of National Parks, Monuments and Forests. It's also crammed full of a lot of really cool state parks that I had no idea even existed until recently! I posted about Antelope Island (which also happens to be a state park) a couple weeks ago and today I will share with you Dead Horse Point!

I didn't even know where Dead Horse Point WAS until I was looking for a place to camp. The name intrigued me so I did some searching and decided if the pictures online were anything to go by, it was a MUST SEE!

According to legend, in the late 1800s the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs. Cowboys rounded up the horses and herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point.. Since the neck was so narrow, it was then easy to fence things off and cull out the "good" horses. For some unknown reason, after a roundup, the horses were left on the point and they died of thirst... leaving the very morbid name of Dead Horse Point.

Dead Horse Point sits on top of a high plateau that overlooks the Colorado River. It's really interesting to look out and see all of the layers of rock that were deposited over thousands of years.

There are about 11 miles of trails (some paved, but most not) in the park.

We did about 5 inches of them because Martijn was trying to die of heat stroke. I decided sitting in the shade at our campsite was a better idea than traipsing through the desert at that point. This also made me feel slightly better about the campground fee, which I thought was a little steep. Twenty bucks doesn't seem like much, but then they recommend you reserve online... which is fine, except they charge another EIGHT DOLLARS to do a reservation! I know, I'm a cheapskate. I think the problem is partially psychological. I'd totally have paid $28, but they tell you it's only going to be 20 and then you have an almost 50% booking fee on top of it. Lame move Utah State Parks. Lame! I can't lie though, the view was totally worth it. And we had electricity so I could charge my camera battery.

If you don't want to camp, there are also quite a few picnic pavilions scattered around.

If you are in Utah and you're going to Arches or Canyonlands, you NEED to make sure that you take time in your trip to stop here. In fact, even if you aren't going to Arches or Canyonlands, you should still go here. The entry fee is $10, but if you are extorted and pay extra money to camp, the entry fee is included.

*****

This week D is for... Dead! Erm, Dead Horse Point State Park! Go visit Mrs. Matlock by clicking on the link below to see more AlphabeThursday!

Friday Fragments- October 8, 2010

On Tuesday I picked up this:

So today I went and applied for my Dutch citizenship. Once they run a check with the police and make sure I'm not a terrorist with unpaid traffic tickets they'll forward it to the IND (the immigration department in NL). The IND will then take their sweet precious time in processing it, but by this time next year, I should also be Dutch!

***

Have you ever noticed how free food usually tastes better than it would have if you'd paid for it? Martijn and I both got a coupon for free pizzas so that's what we ate for dinner tonight and it tasted goooood.

***

I switched my comments over to DISQUS a few weeks ago because I kept trying to reply via e-mail and getting stupid blogger no reply addresses. It is nice that the DISQUS comments thread and you can reply and hopefully the person you're replying to will get an e-mail! Plus it makes following along conversations a little easier.

***

I gave Martijn a haircut last weekend. I think I'm probably not a stylist for a reason. It's a good thing hair grows sorta fast.

***

Do you ever go through the bookmarks on your computer and wonder what your motivation for saving it was? I started using Delicious to I could add notes to my bookmarks but sometimes I don't have time and then when I go back I feel like a dufus for not remembering! Are you a serial bookmarker too?

***

Have a fun weekend everyone, and go check out more Friday Fragments by clicking on the link below. Thanks as always to our lovely hostess Mrs. 4444!

Crassula

I am a plant murderer. If it requires water more than once a year month, I'll probably manage to cause it irreversible harm. Except, I somehow have managed to not kill our jade plant in the 3.5 years I've lived here. With that knowledge in our brains, Martijn and I have been looking for new victims succulents to add to our windowsill. Since these plants don't require a lot of water, they are ideal for me!

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, Crassula is a large genus of succulent plants, containing many species, including the popular Jade Plant, Crassula ovata.

The "Gollum" jade has scary little tubular fingers that sorta look like they're reaching out to get you.

The Crassula undulatifolia has wavy leaves and is a little more like a bush than the tree shape of the Jade Plant.

We have a few spider plants and sansevieria that I've not quite managed to off, but I think I prefer the Crassula. I KNOW they don't like a lot of water so I don't feel too guilty neglecting them! Plus, how fun is it to say crassula over and over again until it loses all meaning? Ok maybe not fun, but it is sortof a cool word.

*****

This week C is for... Crassula! Go visit Mrs. Matlock by clicking on the link below to see more AlphabeThursday!

Birdhouses

I enjoy birdhouses. I don't collect them, but it's fun to look for them and it's fun to see the various things that people use to make them!

This summer when we went to the Ogden Nature Center, we saw oodles of them! The trail from the parking lot to the visitors center is called "Birdhouse Trail" and there were at least 50 birdhouses along the way.

I would never think of using old propane tanks to make a birdhouse, but I loved these.

I think that the shingles on this one are great.

The house-bit of this one isn't remarkable but I absolutely LOVE the ladder staircase!

I wouldn't want to turn -my- bike into a birdhouse, but I thought having the panniers as the birdhouse on the bike was a cute idea.

And just for a bit of added fun, here's a birdhouse that my grandpa and I made for Martijn's mom a few years ago. It's made from old weathered barnwood (the roof is the original "barn red").

*****

This week B is for... Birdhouse! Go visit Mrs. Matlock by clicking on the link below to see more AlphabeThursday!

Antelope Island

One of the spots we visited while we were in the US this summer was Antelope Island. We've been there before but it was the dead of winter and it's not so nice to stop and get out and enjoy the scenery. This time we braved the absurd amount of biting gnats and the wild wind to do a little exploring.

For those who don't know, Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake (also known as the big stinky pond). It's connected to the "mainlands" by a 7ish mile long causeway.

There is a roaming herd of about 500 buffalo and we were lucky enough to see quite a few on our visit.

Those tiny little brown specks are all buffalo, I swear it!

We took a picnic lunch with us. Martijn started laughing like a maniac when he saw this sign so of course he needed to take a picture! Shortly after this we fled back to the car to finish eating our chicken without getting eaten alive by demon gnats.

If you're in the area, I recommend checking it out! You can ride your bike over the causeway or go by car. If there are insane biting gnats, I recommend the later so you have somewhere to hide from them while you eat your picnic lunch.

*****

Summer is over and we're starting back up with AlphabeThursday! This week A is for... Antelope Island!

Friday Fragments- September 10, 2010

I finally got my new glasses yesterday. I HOPE that my eyes adjust to them fast because today I was kinda miserable until I put my old glasses back on. I always have issues when I get new glasses for some reason. The arms are made of some sort of magical bendy rubbery material and I keep having to resist throwing them on the floor to see if they bounce back up like a superball!

*****

I don't know about my Five O'clock Friday submission for this week. It sorta looks like a creepy stalker surveillance photo of these people, even though it really isn't. I'm standing on my balcony on the 8th floor and utilizing the magic zoom on my new camera.

*****

I have been cooking recipes from the Nigella Express cookbook. There are some really nice ones in the cookbook but some of them have really pretentious names like "Croque Monsieur Bake" when they really could be called "Ham and Cheese Sandwich Casserole."

*****

I'm going to spend a lovely day tomorrow in Alkmaar (way up northward) exploring and seeing some friends. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Friday Fragments- September 3, 2010

It's Friday! Time for fragments. Thanks as always to the lovely Mrs 4444 for hosting us.

*****

We were watching the news tonight and I asked Martijn if he ever wondered if the newscasters were wearing pants. He insisted I was insane, but now whenever he watches the news he'll be looking at the desk they sit behind and feeling mighty curious about the whole thing.

*****

I went in on Tuesday to complete the final piece of my Dutchification process. They said they'll get back to me within 4 weeks. I hope it will be sooner and I really hope I passed. I'll let you know... Unless I failed and then I might just make up a lie about them losing my results and me needing to do it again. Although, knowing how competent this system is, it might not even be a lie!

*****

My sweet friend Lori does a feature called Five O'clock Friday on her blog. You take a picture at 5 o'clock (AM or PM) and post it (or e-mail her and she'll post it for you). Seems simple enough. It really is, yet somehow 5 rolls around on Friday and it's the furthest thing from my mind. I told her she needed to start an SMS reminder service. Here's my photo from a couple weeks ago. He's our groovy turtle pot. Please ignore the fact that I'm a terrible plant parent and the tips of the leaves look like something horrible has happened to them.

*****

I was slightly resistant to the changes that Flickr made to their pages, but I'm sorta digging the fact that you can just click on "share this" in the photo window and grab code for whatever size picture you want to post. Before you had to click on "All sizes" and then click on the size you wanted. I thought it was a lot of clicking and waiting for pages to load so this makes me rather happy.

*****

And I shall leave you this week with this:

Some guy in Texas has managed to deep fry beer. I think it sounds revolting, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

The article says "Zable started experimenting. But the beer-and-dough concoction kept exploding once it hit the fryer. He kept getting burned...
Then, earlier this year, he finally found the recipe for success."

So I suspect the moral of the story is: If at first you don't succeed, fry, fry again.