Gillespie Family: 2011

We went to the middle of no where and had a rock'in time... Delta Utah. Delta is located in Millard County if you don't know where that is it 109 miles south west from my home in Utah county. http://millardcountytravel.com/ They have all the scoop for all of the fun things we did and much more. We really didn't know much about Delta other than you can go fossil hunting for trilobites. The morning before we left we had two rough planned vacations Delta or Goblin valley near Moab Ut. I saw on the news that Delta was two degrees warmer than Moab. I thought of all the people heading down to Moab for the UEA break and made up my mind middle of no where sounded funner. I called my Mom and she told me she went to Delta a lot as kids, her grandmother lived there. She also told me about Lehman Caves. So we had two things we would like to do for our two and half days.

I would like to tell you all the fun things we did and the things we should have done differently so if the middle of no where sounds fun than you can try it.

We have a new camping trailer we just got. So I looked up RV sites on line and that looked good. http://antelopevalleyrvpark.com/ We pulled up to the RV park and it was nice like the photos, very clean with big trees. We liked it but it wasn't very campy no picknick tables or fire pits which we are used to. It had a big grassy area that we had races on. We would have had a blast, if I would have remembered a ball or something, the one thing I forgot. We didn't use any of the extras like laundry and restrooms with showers, TV, wi-fi, and Rec. Hall. We really just used the full hook-up and our pad of grass. I don't think they do tents there just so you know.
On your way out of town we saw this tree. I don't know why shoes are up in this tree but It was a cool photo to share. Friday the same day we got to delta we went Trilobite hunting with http://www.u-digfossils.com/ We first went to their rock shop just off of Main and got the map to find the quarry that is just behind us in the photo. It was a good half hour west of Delta. It was easy to find. For a fee they had tools for you, all you have to bring is the family. If we were to do it again, I think we would have brought safety or sunglasses for everyone, pants and maybe work gloves. We were the last ones up there. The old guys that work the place were really nice to us, giving the kids extra trilobites, rocks, bags, water bottles and they gave Razor like 10 dog treats. We found probably 25 good fossils to take home. It was great, Paul would have wanted to go back the next day if you didn't need to pay another fee, I think Paul said it was a bit over sixty dollars for two hours.

That is a trilobite.

The rock shop in town was the best of two shops we went to. They were cheap and they had cool things for Utah and other places. I would recommend going to this shop its 350 E. 300 S., Delta. The lady inside gave us a great deal on rock and told us about Geode hunting (Paul's next trip) and gave the kids a few rocks.
Part of Wyatt's rock collection.

Delta has great playgrounds, we saw three or more. I wish our town we live in would build parks like the ones in the middle of no where. With little kids and all the driving we did we had to stop and play a few times. I should have taken more photos, sorry.

Saturday morning we went to the Great Basin Museum. If you are passing through Delta you should stop. They are in a little place off Main Street for now but I saw a sign that they are building a new museum on Main. They feature exhibits of west Millard county's history, geologic specimens, fossil, and artifacts of early human occupation, early settlers. They have a whole exhibit of the WWII Topaz Relocation Center. if you have never heard of such a place it's a camp that held American Japanese people from San Francisco during WWII. The coolest thing for us was the lady showed us glowing rocks. They collected rocks from the area and put them under two different black lights and the rocks really glow. I wished I would have taken a picture of them it was really cool. Wyatt now wants to get a black light and look for glowing rocks.

She looks so innocent but she really wants to jump the rope. I had to pull her out two times.
Last but not least Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park. It is one hour and forty five minutes from Delta. As we drove out to the caves Paul said "this better be good." They were great. I didn't know you could get reservations the day before you want to go, it would have saved us an hour wait after the long drive out there. This cave has no hike to it at all, just right outside the visitor center. We live 15 minutes or less under Timpanogos cave but it's a steep hike up to the cave. I don't think will be doing it for a few years until all the kids can hike it themselves. Anyway back to Lehman caves it was a 60 minute tour on a path with a few stairs. Wow Lehman caves is decorated by massive stalactites, stalagmites and columns, and very thin hollow tubes that hang from the ceiling. Draperies, cave bacon, and a unique structure called shields. My kids really liked it and impressed the guide by naming the stalactites and mites. If I were to go again I would call a head to get a time. You can call (775) 234-7331 ext. 242. and lastly I would have brought a flashlight for everyone. The cave is lite but to see the details would have been cool.
Us waiting patiently...We have jackets on because the cave is a cool 52* inside.

This last photo is in the cave near the exit. Over a hundred years ago, people would start through this cave coming down on ropes and would have to crawl out on their bellies. They would sign their names to say they did it and they were there. My family and I could not sign the wall or even touch it but we where there, and we did it. We had a blast.