Babysitting in Richfeild

So here are a few pictures of my sister Katie's kids while they went to Florida. I helped take them for over 2 days, while Angelee took them for 5 days. It was interesting to live the life of a mom for that amount of time. All I have to say is Mom's are awesome, because they are so busy, BUT it is so worthwhile! you just love your kids so much, I loved getting to know my neices and nephew and the end of trip they felt like my kids. You just love them when you are with them so much.

Golden Spike National Park

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 So this past April we decided to head up to The golden Spike Monument. If you haven't gone there before we HIGHLY recommend it. We went when you don't have to pay the fee to get it. It was free National Parks day. It was freezing cold.....remember? when it was snowing back in April, then the next day was all warm and sunshine? ya that was this day. Above it the gorgeous view up by Brigham City. We loved that it was so open and no one was there because of the snow. We had it to ourselves! This was so fun, we even want to come up and go Fishing at Locomotive Springs and see more Ghost Towns. There is a cool feeling out there! Also, they said to be careful for flat tires, because of all the rain, etc. there are still spikes that get washed up on the road. One guys had 3 flat tires in one day. Crazy huh? We didn't have any flat tires.

 

This Was where the Railroads met. As you can see the clouds were coming in and it has just started snowing.

 

A rock where they would drive spikes

 

One of the real rails. Most of the Railroad is gone, because they needed the supplies for World War 2 crazy huh? So they did all that work to lay it all, then 70 years later took it all back up. Below is a replica of one of the 4 golden spikes ever made.

 

In one day they laid 10 miles of track, which is on record ever! They were in a hurry to get it done on time.

 

Original spikes and part of a rail

 

They found an old pocketwatch

 

A gun they would use to defend themselves against Idians

 

Tobacco Pipe and a Medicine bottle

 

Chinese Coins. Thousands of Chinese immigrants worked on the Railroad.

 

Soy Sauce Jars

 

Game Pieces

 

This is where a Trestle or temporary bridge was. Once account said that they could feel the train shaking as it went across a Trestle. Trestles were Temporary just to get the train over a hill. Then they tore the Trestle down right after, so no one would use because it was so unsafe.

 

You can see the Trestle behind me.

 

Before the Visitors Center this Monument just stood to represent the Golden Spike int he middle of nowhere.

 

You can see where the Train went. It went straight through hills, sometimes they would dig through Mountains. It would take the Chinese 8 inches a day to get through. Many Chinese immigrants also died from no exposure to fresh air, weather, and hard labor.

 

Another Trestle area

 

you can see the railroad trail

 

These were built at the bottom of hills, because some dirt was so sandy, it needed to hold the train.

 

This little Arch was made by Bonneville Lake.

 

There are Ghost Towns around there which are SO Cool

 

This was close up of the railroad track through a hill. You can see the digging marks.

 

Look at this view!

 

Then we went to the Train Museum. This is Bella the Cat she is there to eat all the rats. Serious. She was also very fat.

 

They have to polish all the brass on the trains. They work year round to work on these trains. They are replicas of the trains that day when they drove the golden spike. They used bright colors back then also. These are worth about 1 million dollars, someone who works for Disney donated these and had them made exactly like they were.

 

These Trains used tons of Coal

 

Real Gold is painted on the Trains.