Flowers in the Desert

Flowers in the Desert

Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah

May 1984

Happy Veterans Day

The Boneyard

Eagle Range, Utah

May 1984

Veteran's Day 2018

Happy Veteran's Day

F4 Phantom

Hill Air Force Base, Utah

Spring 1985

Driving Through the Great Salt Lake

That is the I-80 median on my left

Saltair Resort under water.
You can barely see the right-of-way fence posts.

Heading east towards Salt Lake City and the Oquirrh Mountains

Dirt mounds holding the lake back from the highway

Starting in the fall of 1982 record rains and snowfall (snowfall nearly twice normal) and spring melting caused the Great Salt Lake to begin it's historic rise. This abnormal rain and snow continued through the mid 1980's. I got to Utah in the late fall of 1983, a week later the snows started and I didn't see ground until April. We had 36" of snow on the ground Christmas day. Part of my work took me out to the west side of the Lake. In the Spring of 1984 the water levels in the Lake started to rise. It was all that the Highway Department could do to keep up with it. As you can see there was times the water still covered Interstate 80.

Promontory Point and the Golden Spike

On those final weeks in Utah we also drove out to explore the northwest. That's where we ran into the Golden Spike National Historic Site. This is the spot on Promontory Point that the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads met to complete the transcontinental railroad.  The info sign there says it was May 9th 1869, the GSNHS website says it was May 10th 1869. We were there May 11th 1985. There actually was a Golden Spike Ceremony, but it was soon followed by a Last Spike Ceremony when a regular iron spike was driven. Luckily for us and the Jeep there was a jeep trail around the park.

Jeeping in the Wasatch Mountains

 Rock Slide in the Wasatch Mountains

 Little Cottonwood Canyon

 Little Cottonwood Canyon

 Big Cottonwood Canyon

 Mercur, Utah

 Snow Basin, Utah

Wasatch Mountains, Utah

In the last couple of weekend before I left Utah, friends and I would pick a direction and go.  NE, SW, NW or SE. These pictures are from Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons, southeast of Salt Lake City. Mercur, Utah, southwest of Salt Lake City. Snow Basin, east of Ogden and other roads in the Wasatch range northeast of Ogden. These were all take May 11th and 12th, 1985.

And Then There Was the Time We Climbed Mt. Ogden

While stationed in Utah I remember on Labor Day Weekend in 1984, my room mates and I decided to hike up and over Mt. Ogden. I don't remember just who was responsible for the idea but it sounded like a good idea at the time. So we drove Dave T's car over to Snow Basin Ski Area and parked it. Then we took my car up into the hills above Ogden and Weber State University. I see now there are three different routes from the west, I haven't a clue anymore which one we took. At some point we hit the camping area and set up our tent and built a fire. I remember sleeping outside by the fire that night instead of the tent. Got cold, too. Next morning we headed to the top. I, of course, was the last one there. Then it was all down hill from there. We walked down, under and through the ski lifts back to the car. I think we celebrated by going to our favorite Mexican Restaurant that night.

Picture 1: The summit from the camping area.

Picture 2: Hill AFB, the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island and the Lakeside Mountains west of the Great Salt Lake from near the top. Mt. Ogden sits along the Wasatch Front which is the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is on the eastern front of the Rockies.

Picture 3: My room mates Dave T (who was soon leaving to be a hurricane chaser) and Dave O (who I don't think had been on base more than a week or so), on the summit at 9572'.

Picture 4: Dave T and me, in desperate need of oxygen,  at the base of the summit. Ogden and the Great Salt Lake in the background. I think that might be Weber State University in the lower right corner.

Picture 5: Looking down the east side at Snow Basin Ski Area and Pineview Reservoir, near Huntsville, Utah.

Stevens Cannery, Roy, Utah (PG 174)

Here is proof that I've been shooting Painted Gentlemen for almost 28 years. This is the Stevens Cannery in Roy, Utah. Roy sits between Ogden, where I lived, and Hill Air Force Base where I  worked, if you go around the northwest side of base on Interstate 15.  This was taken in the spring of 1984. The Stevens Cannery took over the Varney Cannery in  1955 and operated here until 1980. (2757 West 6000 South, Roy, Utah) You can faintly read Varney under Stevens. I did read that they canned tomatoes here, what else, I don't know.

Merry Christmas 1983

Merry Christmas one and all from everyone here at the main offices of the Outskirts of Suburbia. My Christmas card to the blog-o-sphere this year comes courtesy of 1983. My first Christmas away from home, Hill AFB, Utah. The tree is courtesy of Gram and followed me for the next 3 holidays. May your season be bright and your day be merry and I hope you have a stack of gifts taller than your tree.

1985 Scans

From late 1983 until early summer of 1985 I was stationed in Utah. Camera-wise I started with a old Kodak Disc camera that I finally upgraded just before leaving. My upgrade was an Olympus 35mm point and shoot. This was probably about the time that they finally put 35mm roll film into a point and shoot. These are from that Olympus. The first is the fire department I belonged to while I lived off base. This is the Washington Terrace Fire Department. I lived 4 or 5 blocks away, along Route 89 by the high school. Nothing real significant happened during my time spent with these guys. I sure they don't remember me. I can remember a couple of the guys. There were the Father and Sons, the boys were Phil and Bart, I think. Roger and Toby. And the Chief, I think he was Peterson. There was weekly training and meetings and a few calls, but they weren't near as busy as I was back home. They ran two of these Van Pelts. One was really old. And there was another piece of apparatus I no longer recall. The only pictures I have are three of this unit. Before leaving Utah I visited my cousin ion Huntington Beach, California. I guess she actually lived in Santa Anna, but we visited Huntington Beach were this Lifeguard Jeep was stationed. Got to love the tail step with the hand holds. And the last one is a Crash truck that was sitting out at  El Toro Marine Corps Air Station at an air show.

And Then One Day We Drove to Idaho

The life of a young Airman can be one of spontaneity. A hundred years ago while I was still stationed in Utah we went for a drive one day. It was actually January 2nd, 1985 and I had been stationed at Hill for 14 months and at that time I was training a new guy. Seeing that our weather station was a 24/7 operation, around the holidays us single guys would work six 12 hours shifts over Christmas which would give us six days off over New Years. Well we took advantage of the time off and drove north out of Ogden and through Logan, Utah (Bottom picture). Tim and I then continued north on Route 89 through Logan Pass where we stopped for some pictures of the snow banks (never saw that much snow at one time(third picture)). Bear Lake straddles the Utah Idaho border along Route 89 (fourth picture) near Glencoe, Idaho. Then we dropped into Idaho. Now, Minorsville seems to be a mystery. Googling and Binging finds no town of Minorsville in Idaho or Utah. I seem to remember it being in Idaho but maybe it just never really existed. As for the rest of the day memories of that have been replaced by better memories of something else, I guess. But bits and pieces remain thanks to these and some other pictures I took that day.

The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

All that he could see was the other side of the mountain.

Be like the bear and never stop looking over the next mountain.