Wednesday, July 10, 2019

July 10 – Peterson Rock Garden and Steelhead Falls

I think we may have a contender for the longest post and I could have added so many more pictures.

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I wasn’t too sure about going to our first destination, the Peterson Rock Garden.

I had read about it in a chapter on unusual sights in a Lonely Planet book. About 80 years ago a man started building structures in his yard out of unusual rocks he had found. It became quite a popular tourist attraction. However once he died, his daughter and son inherited the place and didn’t really take care of it. I even read that it had close around 2012. Then I saw reviews on Google Maps from only a few days ago, so off we went. It is getting pretty run down and really needs a good weeding but his amazing creations still show through.

We never saw anybody other than other tourists. There were boxes asking for $4 per person for seniors, 6$ for adults.

We started here. It was marked (in stone) as having been built in 1940.

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So many colourful rocks with little structures embedded in them.

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This table was inside.

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A castle in the middle of a large pool, that you can see in the background of the picture above.

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Next was a building and a Statue of Liberty linked by some bridges.

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A photosphere.

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The black on the bridge is obsidian and the white is sea shells.

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The water lilies were beautiful.

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For some reason there are about 10 peacocks roaming around.

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The males would randomly do a display.

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The rear view.

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A new one.

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Next building and area.

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Some giant clams shells on the back side.

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One of the peacocks used it as a perch.

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The museum wasn’t open but it had an intricate facade.

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Another section was on some islands in a large pond that was covered in water lilies

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A photosphere.

I love the obsidian on the bridges.

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A photosphere.

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The wall around the set of buildings looked like this.

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Even the hand rails were colourful.

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A beautiful bird bath.

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Even the parking lot had some huge structures.

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The detail work was amazing.

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This one seemed to be a pile of interesting rocks.

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Jennie was very jealous of the pearly shells.

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The third section was a pile of lava topped by this.

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It was tough to tear ourselves away but after about an hour and a half we moved on.

Our next stop was Peter Skene Ogden State Park, which is a rest stop off the highway next to a deep gorge. There is a new highway bridge, an old highway bridge that you can walk across and a railway bridge.

Out on the old highway bridge.

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The simple structure of the new bridge.

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There were all kinds of warnings to watch your kids and to leave your pets in the car. It is 300 feet straight down and with a low railing apparently many dogs have tried to leap over and fallen.

The old highway bridge is a little more complicated.

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Walking down the canyon.

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The railway bridge.

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A photosphere.

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A photosphere.

We found a picnic table for lunch and then moved on.

It is only 1/2 mile and 120 foot change in elevation from the trailhead to Steelhead Falls but by now it was very hot and there was no wind. It was also downhill on the way in, making for a very sweaty climb back out.

Down and around the canyon wall.

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Some interesting formations above us.

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The falls are about 20 feet tall.

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The photosphere.

It seems the falls are a popular swimming destination as there were lots of teens here, jumping off various cliffs.

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This guy did complete his somersault to land feet first.

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There was a kayaker who went down the falls several times, sometimes gracefully, sometimes not,

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Downstream it got shallow because we saw people standing in waist deep water.

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A view from a bit higher on the bank.

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The photosphere.

Everybody looked up at the colourful halo around the sun.

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We sat and watched for a while and then eventually plodded our way back up to the car and home.

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Another day that was much better than expected.

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