Day 24

Day 24 - Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Pocatello, ID to Little America Hotel, Salt Lake City, UT

With an early start and a breakfast at Perkins, we left Pocatello with Idaho redeemed in our minds. Our first target was a movie theater showing the newest Harry Potter. We reached the southern portion of Salt Lake City by 1pm and with our two tickets for a 7 o'clock showing in hand, we headed further south to Timpanogos Cave National Monument, thinking we would have a quick tour, then check-in to our 4 star priceline special, have dinner, and return to see the movie. Our well laid plan was decimated by the realization that in order to get to the cave you needed to hike 1 and a half miles while rising over 1,000 feet in elevation, just to get to the cave entrance. With grim determination (ok, I had a blast and loved the hike,

Tara was near tears after seeing the 1/4 way there sign)

we made it to the top despite the warnings of potential avalanches, rattlesnakes, steep drop offs and glaring sun. The cave is actually three caves that were connected in the 1930s (Timpanogos, Middle, and Hansen caves), consisting of another 1/2 mile of trails, with wonderful stalagmites, stalactites, cave bacon, soda straws and popcorn,

not to mention the most annoying guide ever, Ranger Bruce, who consistently referred to himself in the third person and said "Isn't that awesome" a half a million times. We had the distinct pleasure of walking the 1 and a half miles back down to the parking lot, completing our entire journey in less than 3 hours. With the drive back to Salt Lake City still to go we went directly to the theater. Not having enough time for a sit down dinner, we scarfed down some Taco Bell and found some great seats for the movie. Even with a 2 and a half hour running time, the movie flew by and was thoroughly entertaining. We entered the Little America Hotel a little after 10 pm and were amazed at how big the grounds were (surrounding the main hotel there are apartments also owned and maintained by Little America, plus a second hotel called Grand America across the street) and the fact that the decor all seemed straight out of the late 1950s. The room was incredibly large

and we were disappointed to only have one night there.

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