Hello everyone,
After breakfast this morning we met up with some friends of Elaine's parents who live on a ranch in the Provo/Sandy area and they were nice enough to take us to a local attraction they thought we would enjoy. We went to the Bingham Canyon Mine, owned by Kennecott Utah Copper. Wow, I wasn't prepared for what we found!
"Known as the 'Richest Hole on Earth', this gigantic operation has yeilded more than 17 million tons of copper metal, as well as vast quantities of gold, silver and molybdenum. It is the largest man-made excavation in the world. Since open-pit mining began in 1906, more than seven billion tons of material have been removed, creating a pit more than three quarters of a mile deep and two-and-a-half miles wide.
"The Sears tower at 1454 feet tall, would reach only half way up the mine. Bingham Canyon ore has yeilded more than 17 million tons of copper, 23 million ounces of gold, 190 million ounces of silver and 850 million pounds of ,molybdenum, and about 450,000 tons of material are removed daily.
There is a visitor's center with lots of exhibits and a film to watch, and also there's a gift shop.
Next stop was the Olympic Park, scene of the Winter Olympics of 2000, just outside of Park City, Utah. There I saw something I'd never seen before. Skiers in full garb plus life jackets going down ski jumps and into a swimming pool! Outrageous. There were tons of kids of all ages there and several different skill levels and degrees of difficulty. David and I did a very fun 'zip line' together.
Then we went on to Park City 'proper' and found more fun stuff to do, This is a very cool area with lots of 'mountain' activities to do. There was a ski lift to take us to do the Alpine slide, which David did alone and Elaine and I both did with one child each. Fast and lots of fun! There was also a cool 'coaster' and another zip line.
So that was about it for today. Bought some copper trinkets and jewlery as gifts and some souveniers for the kids, then came on to Logan for the night. I'll go now and put up some photos from today.
Tomorrow we go to Jackson Hole, Wy. and we'll meet up with Elaine's other brother John who is bringing two of his four children with him. They will be with us for four days as we go through Yellowstone Park and do some white-water rafting. Oy, my back hurts just thinking about it.
Nite-nite,
Quinn
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