Winter at Utah Lake State Park

I recently discovered that Utah Lake State Park was known to be a winter home for a few bald eagles.  After experiencing the thrill of seeing one out in the wild on a recent trip to Florida, I was eager to see if there really were some only minutes away from my home.

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Chimney Rock & Hickman Bridge

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend in January, we went back down to Torrey to visit the in-laws.  While there, Jessica and I were able to hike the Chimney Rock Loop followed by a short hike to the Hickman Bridge Loop in Capitol Reef National Park.

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Ruby Falls Cave

Tennessee has a lot to offer from the Great Smoky Mountains of the Appalachians to Graceland to the world famous music hub that is Nashville.  Nothing may be more beautiful and spectacular in Tennessee however, than Ruby Falls Cave.  Jessica and I took the opportunity to tour it after awaking in the town of Chattanooga where we had stayed for our first night of our drive back from Florida to Utah.

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Florida's Myakka River State Park

While on our visit to South Florida, I had hoped to sneak in a drive out into the Everglades to look for some alligators as we had gotten to see on a day trip to Miami from Ft. Myers on a prior trip several years ago.  Unfortunately, our schedule became so full of other activities we couldn't swing it.  However, the man assisting with my grandmother's trust referred to us Myakka River State Park, knowing it wasn't much out of the way for Jess and I on our drive north out of state and back to Utah.  It was said to be full of gators.

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Shelling at Marco Island, Florida

While visiting Florida on some family business at the end of December, my wife and I took an opportunity to spend an afternoon out on Marco Island in Florida.  It is known for being a place where sand dollars can often be found along its shores, and that was reason enough to go out there.  I had collected plenty of seashells before as a child living in Florida and on visits to other beaches, but never a sand dollar.  We also found the wildlife to be abundant as well.

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A Drive from Florida to Utah

This post is slightly different from the norm usually found on this blog. While not wholly about an outdoor adventure along a trail or out in the backcountry, this trip did feature visits to some natural settings and landscapes with an abundance of wildlife and a gorgeous cave. However, it also included a lot of history and other sight-seeing stops throughout western and central Florida and across much of the country. I wanted to document it all just the same...

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