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Published: September 30th 2017
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Descending Parley's Canyon
Mix of snow, sleet and rain - but fortunately no ice on the road. Geo: 40.7595, -111.888
Up Monday morning, we packed up, loaded the car,
and drove on to Salt Lake City following US highway
40 until we hit Interstate 80 at Silver Creek. The
weather had been off and on overcast and rainy
most of the way from Vernal but no frozen stuff until
just after getting on I-80. From Silver Creek, the
interstate climbs to a pass in the Wasatch Mountains
called Parley's Summit. It then descends through an
area called Parley's Canyon before entering Salt Lake
City proper. The elevation of the pass is 7,120 feet and
as we climbed toward the top of the pass, the temperature
dropped from the 50's through the 40's, into the low 30's,
and the rain turned to a mix of rain, snow, and sleet.
Fortunately the roads stayed only wet with no icy conditions
to deal with, and as we descended toward SLC, the weather
got better and better, with the wintery mix reverting to rain
and then clearing to become dry and mostly sunny. Amazing
how the weather on the eastern side of that summit could be
The "Dairy Cats" of Steenblik Park
Named for Joseph F. Steenblick, a prominent native of Salt Lake City. In the early 1900's he ran a dairy which was located nearby. While there are no stories specifically about cats at the dairy, the artist that created the cats imagined that there would be cats there to control mice, etc. and probably begging for a squirt of milk. Thus he cast the cats for the park. so lousy while the western side was so nice.
We arrived at our motel early but were
able to check in after only a short wait. After settling in, we went
in search of a park or other quiet area where we could stretch our
legs and get a few miles in before dinner. Anne had seen mention of
a park in SLC called Steenblik Park that had statues of cats, so that
was something of a no-brainer – had to find it. We found it on the
google map app on our phone and since it was pretty close to our
motel were able to drive there in just a few minutes. It was a very
small park, about the size of two or three small city lots. But it
had statues of cats as well as a few swings and other playground
equipment for children. Apparently cats frequented a dairy that had
been located nearby that was owned by a man named Steenblik for whom
the park was named. We took a few pictures of the cats and then set[
out along the residential streets to a larger park where we were able
to get our usual hour plus of walking in. When we returned to the
park, we found
Another of the Cats
There are a total of 4 cats, cast in bronze with variations in patina resulting in the different colors. a small group of young boys playing in the park. We
risked asking one of them to take our picture with one of the cats,
something they enthusiastically agreed to do, almost coming to blows
over which one would get to do it. Fearing they might just run off
with our camera, we nevertheless picked the one who looked to be the
most responsible and gave him the camera. He actually did a pretty
good job as you can see in one of the pictures posted on this page.
After our walk in the park, we returned
to the motel, cleaned up a bit, and walked to a nearby restaurant
where we had dinner. Back at the motel we packed up one last time in
preparation for our 7:20 AM flight from SLC airport. Got home around
5:30 to a house full of live cats, all happy to see Anne - and the food
she immediately set out for them.
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