Today I am grateful for many things. I will focus on Delta, Utah and the Snow Geese migration resting place. A week or so ago, my daughter, Ambur, saw some pictures of just hundreds of geese and showed it to me. Now, anyone who knows me well, knows that I love birds. Well, I found out that this weekend is the main days for the migration to take place and it is the Snow Geese festival in Delta, Utah. So I decided I was going. And of course Ambur is always game to go along even if she doesn't always get to see everything. I try as much as possible to describe things to her and she and I always have some good laughs.
We headed out at about 6 this morning and off we went to the Gunnison Bend Reservoir which was about 2 1/2 hours drive. It was dark when we headed out but the moon was just amazingly beautiful.
The sun was coming up and I tried to get a picture of it, but that didn't work out as well as I had hoped. We saw a rabbit in the middle of the road while it was still pretty dark and it is possible I might have hit it--I hope not, but it didn't seem to move out of the road fast enough.
As the sun brought more and more light to our day, we kept seeing the big black raven's in the road, all over the road, across the entire road and as we drove we realized they were eating what is left of a rabbit that had been hit. These birds were about every 100 feet or so and there were no other cars anywhere to be seen so I did stop and get a picture before we got to them. To my GREAT surprise, what should appear in the group but.....
This beautiful eagle who's meal I interrupted. He just sat there watching me and I thought I was going to have a heart attack he was so close and beautiful. It wasn't long before he flew off and went to the trees still watching so he could go back and finish his meal (I think). What a treasure to see.
As we went along we saw a little town called Deseret. Who knew? Not me for sure. Before the town came along, we saw Fort Deseret and of course I had to stop to see what it was all about. It was a great little surprise. I love the history of Utah and even though some of it is not the greatest achievements, or actions, I love reading and seeing historical information.
This is the hole in the fort wall where the occupants would be on the lookout for the indians that were supposedly angry -- they never showed up and there was never any confrontation at the fort
The reservoir was not to far from Deseret and the information suggested that the flying from the fields to the water would likely be taking place between 9 and 10 am. We got there just about 850 or so and there was literally about 5 people there. I was really surprised. We sat down for a minute and then a very nice man came and told us that the geese were all in a field not to far away. He told us how to get there and so off we went to take a look.
There were cars parked all along the street so it wasn't hard to find the geese. We got a good parking spot and I started taking the pictures. When I use my big lens, I never really know how good the pictures will be and I usually have to take 2 - 10 for a good one to show up. So there were a ton of pictures taken and a lot that I really liked so I am forewarning that there are quite a few here even though I narrowed them down.
We were watching as a few geese would fly up and move all the way to the other end of the line. You would be watching and then suddenly the geese would start talking and then a few would fly. All of a sudden this truck hauling hay drives by (way too fast) and hay is spinning around our heads and even went into the car and he lays on his horn as though he thinks someone will be moving--no one moved he had plenty of room to get by and after all he should know it is the Snow Geese Migration day. But he sure did make a rukus.
I can hardly be grateful for Geese alone on this beautiful day. Seeing an eagle and hawks was just phenomenal and seeing these beautiful geese with the snow covered mountains in the background was just so beautiful. As you zoom in on the pictures, you may see some landing or flying into the crows in the field. There couldn't be a better backdrop and it was just beautiful.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. There are a few geese flying in and they line up literally with the snow level on the mountain and they are just beautiful birds.
Suddenly we hear a lot of geese chatter. It got louder and louder and I couldn't see where they were but suddenly there they were. Three different groups were taking flight. It wasn't any huge amount, but it was very cool. They got closer and closer and then they were right overhead and I couldn't snap fast enough on the camera. I ended up with a few good ones.
Then we went back to just watching those left in the field with anticipation there are a lot of them and with those groups flying off, we kept thinking (as did everyone there) that any minute the whole field would take off. But after about 5 minutes or so with no geese talk being heard we decided to go to the water and see if we could see the ones that took off. There were still some being added to the group in the field. Or possibly not being added, but moving locations/positions.
There they were on the water, but on the far side so we couldn't really see them very well. We decided to drive to the other side and see if we could get a better view.
This little poochie was walking around and stopped by to say hello.
Off we drove to the other side and sure enough as soon as we got around the bend, there they were! I pulled over as fast as I could so I could get a couple of pictures before I couldn't see them any longer.
These two were a little too tired to make it to the water.
What a great site and wonderful sound. When Ambur and I lived in South Salt Lake we used to have geese flyover regularly and I loved hearing them. Some times I would hear them talking and I would shout out, "THE GEESE, THE GEESE", run and get my camera and out I would go to get some pictures. One time, one of the geese was so close to me as I got outside he dropped a special plop right on my head. It was hilarious and gross all at the same time. Today I wish the Snow Geese had been close enough to drop a plop on my head. I would have probably cried with joy and disgust at the same time.
As I looked at my pictures I found a couple that I liked and they are not of the geese but show some of the beauty surrounding our visit.
After the thrill of the geese sighting, we headed into town to eat. Signs all over about the festival and we ate at a place called the Ranchers Cafe and it was delicious. As we left, we saw a bunch of food trucks in the parking lot and looked around to see if there were any great desserts, and sure enough Ambur found a german food truck that had spaghetti ice which is something she loves and we decided to buy one to share and we got up to the ordering window and they were out of supplies. Bummer for Ambur.
We then went to the ToPaz Museum. This was so informative to me. Ambur is well versed being a lover of history she knew much about it. What a sad time in our country's history and reading and seeing the artifacts and pictures was very interesting.
This movie camera belonged to one of the internee's. They were not supposed to have cameras and the story of how he got his camera can be seen on YouTube, it is one of only two home movies in the Library of Congress films. It is called Topaz and if you want to see it, I highly recommend it, just enter Topaz home Video and it should come up for you.
We picked up a bunch of brochures that told about other things to see in the area and as we were on our way back home there was a sign for one of those places and we decided to take the six mile detour and see it.
This fenced off area has some petroglyphs on the rocks---but I think there is also some graffiti on the rock as well, it was sort of hard to decipher.
This is the 'Great StoneFace'. I have never heard of this place, but as we read about it, the native americans believe it to represent the first prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints, Joseph Smith. I got as close as possible to take the pictures, I think even if I were sitting on it, it would not look like Joseph Smith but we can say we have been there now.
The windmill, geothermal plant, just outside of Milford, was hard at work. Of course you can't see them going round and round but they sure were and that mountain backdrop is so beautiful.
It was really fun seeing this sign as Ambur and I have seen many of the people mentioned at the Days of 47 rodeo in past years on July 24th and they are just great. I think it is really nice the the town honors them with this lovely sign.
So very much to be grateful for. I love being able to do a day trip and see so much and feel so blessed. I am grateful to be able to experience the Geese and feel the sorrow of Topaz and the strength in building the Fort at Deseret. Just a really beautiful day of gratitude.
