East Canyon Resort & Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, Salt Lake City, Utah

Our first stop on our way back to Florida was at East Canyon Resort about 30 miles northeast of Salt Lake City.

The membership resort has over 9,000 acres with 32 condos, 84 rv sites and many miles of ATV trails. This building housed the restaurant.

Today we headed out of East Canyon to visit the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine in Salt Lake City.

Enjoy some of the pictures of East Canyon.

The trees were all vibrant with their fall colors.

East Canyon is on Utah Highway 65. With its many inclines and switchbacks, it is easy to see why this road is not maintained in the winter.

The Bingham Canyon Copper Mine occupies approximately 80 square miles of land in the southwest portion of Salt Lake County.

This is a view as you approach the largest man-made excavation on earth.

The copper mine itself is 2 1/2 miles wide and more than 1/2 mile deep. Two Empire State Buildings could be stacked on top of each other and not reach the top.

Over 500 miles of roads inside the open-pit mine help expedite the work which, in the mine's 104 year history, has produced more than 18.7 million tons of 99.99% pure copper.

A view down into the repair facility shows one of the mine's huge dump trucks being directed by a very small person.

The mine has 64 of these dump trucks which use this size tire and can carry a load of up to 320 tons (that's 640,000 pounds!).

Kennicott, which owns the mine, maintains a very nice visitor center where you can learn that copper plays a huge role in your modern day life. The visitor center is open 8 to 8 April 1-October 31.

Two dump trucks, one empty and one full, pass each other on
the road leading to the mine. They travel up to a speedy 15 miles per hour.

Here's one the dump trucks dumping its load. These dump trucks are available for purchase for a mere $3 million.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...

Last Day at the IMAX

Today was our last day working at the IMAX this summer. We took a few pictures.

This was actually last Wednesday, Leanne and Rita take a break from folding t-shirts on Rita's last day at the IMAX.

Carlos and Jerry (not pictured) taught Marlon everything about being an IMAX projectionist.

The film is loaded and ready to go.

Marlon watched over 700 IMAX movies this summer. Many of them were called Yellowstone.

Marlon and the IMAX projector

Delfino hopes no one threw up in the movie this time.

Two early patrons got their pick of seats.

The IMAX screen is six stories tall and 80 feet wide.

Candice awaits the next tour group.

Doug and Delfino hold up the counter.

The next day the IMAX Theatre was deserted as the winter season started. The winter season schedule as of now is Wednesday through Sunday 1:30pm to 9:00pm.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...

Saying Goodbye to Yellowstone

Our final trip into Yellowstone National Park this year was filled with several good sightings.

We saw this coyote jumping into holes hunting for some food.

Headed to Black Sand Basin...

A raven waited around to see if anyone would drop any tasty morsels.

Looking down Iron Creek at Black Sand Basin while a small geyser erupts.

And more of Black Sand Basin...

Upon arrival at Biscuit Basin, we found that we humans were not alone.

The bison (aka buffalo) calmly waited for all the humans to pass...

to give itself a good head scratching on the boardwalk...

and then slowly make its way across to the other side to promptly relieve itself.

Splish, splash we're not taking a bath in Mustard Spring.

It was kind of steamy at Midway Geyser Basin today.

On Firehole Lake Drive, we came across the Great Fountain Geyser. It erupts about every 12 hours and it was "scheduled" to erupt in about 45 minutes, so we decided to stick around and wait.

We waited and waited. The approximate time of eruption came and went. We waited another 30 minutes for the inevitable.

The wait was rewarded as the Great Fountain is one of the largest and most dramatic geysers in the park.

This cone-shaped geyser is Castle Geyser. It too only erupts a couple of times a day. It erupted while we were waiting for Great Fountain.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...