Utah - Park City October 13

We had no plans for the day so we decided to just take off and explore. As we were driving out to Heber City we noticed signs to Park City - home of the 2002 Winter Olympics. 

We're driving down the road to Park City and off to our right we can easily see the famous Olympic Nordic ski jumps.

What a thrill to find loads of venues, a museum and a theater that showed film from the actual Olympics.

Here is part of the bobsled track.  There are even times when they will have a professional take you on a bobsled ride through the entire track.

But the "real thrill" was watching the ski jumpers practicing. 

At the far end of the pool you can see the future olympians practicing jumps on trampolines.  Toward the center of the pool you can see the bottom of the skis as this jumper enters the pool from the short ramp on the left.

What we found most interesting is that as the jumper is coming down the ramp they begin to pump air from the bottom of the pool up into the water.  It softens the entry for the jumper but more importantly it makes the water look white which gives them the ability to differentiate between the water and the sky.  When they are doing their turns in the air they lose perspective as to which way is UP!

Now, the real fun begins.  If you enlarge this photo you can see the jumper at the bottom of the ramp just as he is ready...

...to take off and flip completely upside down before he...

...straightens out and enters the water.  What fun it was to watch these young Olympic hopefuls practice their amazing abilities!

But wait..that's not all!  We also got to see the Women's nordic long jumpers practice on the jump on the left.

Just before the jumper comes out into the shoot, the jumps are given a heavy watering.

When there is no snow, in order to simulate the feel, the ramp is actually covered from top to bottom in rows of what looks like plastic stringlike material!

If you look real close you can see the jumper  finishing her jump as she slides on the plastic ramp  and eventually will slide onto the grass.

We drove around Park City, stopped to eat in the center of town and checked out the amazing Park City ski resorts.  I just had to include this photo of the beautiful aspens near Deer Valley Resort.

We really enjoyed our month in Salt Lake City playing lots of golf and tennis and enjoying the amazing paved 13 mile (one way) bike trail that ran right by the RV Park.  Next stop, back to Zion National Park to hike the Narrows.