My Artwork

Here are a few of the drawings that I was selling at the Peach Days fair. They are the results of several years of work and mostly have an archeological theme. My artwork is one of the two serious aspects of my magnificent life. The other is my family, who make my life magnificent. And who tolerate the long hours that I spend on the artwork. So, enough of that.

The first one here is of the gate to the stairs that lead up to the Temple of the Sun in the ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru. It was done with the stippling process, which is making several million dots of ink to look like what you wanted to portray. It took about two months to complete. Oh, and by the way, prints of all of these are for sale. If interested then email me at archaeoart@xmission.com.

Red Rock Pass

Today, Evelyn and I took a trip north into Idaho to visit a place called Red Rock Pass. I’ve wanted to visit this place for nearly two decades, but never knew how close it actually was. I have known about this pass since I did a paper on Lake Bonneville back in my college days. This is the approach to the pass from the south along highway 91.

The fame of Red Rock Pass comes from it being the location where Lake Bonneville emptied into the Snake River at the rate of a million cubic meters of water per second. Within a month the lake level had dropped three hundred feet to a level equal to the new elevation of the pass after it being breached by this unequaled flood of water. It took that long because of the great size of this prehistoric fresh water lake. In many places in Utah you can see the level of the lake because of the wide flat bench of gravel and rock that, in some places, is a thousand feet above the valley floor. I regularly hike along one such ancient roadway not far from my home in Brigham City. This sign may explain a few things. If you  can read it.



This is a stop on the side of the road in the middle of the pass. The stairs take you to the top of the windy knoll and to a memorial to a very brave man. I have forgotten the particulars of his fame but remember that he was part of the handcart company “A” coming to Utah. This is important because it was thought that this should be the northern boundary of the state of Utah because all the water north of it empties into the Columbia River and to the Pacific. All the water south of this point drains into the remnant of Lake Bonneville, the great Salt Lake. On the other side of the hill is a cemetery in an enclosed fence. I never checked on the names though. Maybe next time.

Here is Evelyn working her way to the top of the stairs to see all that can be seen from there.

We went north from here to see the boulder fields that I had read about, but we never found them. These rocks and boulders are said to be from the size of cantaloupes to the size of a car. They were pushed up into wide mounds by the tremendous force of the flood. We never found them. We ended up getting some treats at a truck stop and heading for home by the back roads. This has been a day well spent.

Bear Lake

Swim anyone?
In a heartbeat

On Columbus Day, we went to Bear Lake. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. So we headed out to the lake, seeing the sights that we could along the way.

One of the places we stopped at is a place called Rick’s Spring. We’ve been there before, but this is the first time that I could actually see the spring because of the angle of the sun. It was cool and clear and, on a warm day, very much a temptation to take a cool dip. But we didn’t. Not enough daylight.

We went on to Tony Grove and the day went from great to wonderful. The wind off the lake was as welcome as the forests surrounding it. I walked around to the picnic area to see if we wanted to eat there. But we didn’t. There were cows behind the foliage in most directions. I don’t know how many there were but enough to make a picnic crowded. They were probably waiting to be herded down to lower elevations for the winter. It was tempting to stay anyway.

Rachael collecting plant specimens.

The forest smelling of pine and earth was spotted with sunlight, dazzling against the dark trunks of the tall trees. And we were very nearly the only ones there. We took our pictures and gathered plant (Rackael’s ) and rock (Evelyn’s) samples and left.

This was our first sight of Bear Lake. What a beautiful body of water. This was only a stop on our way to get some raspberry shakes down in Garden City, a tourist stop that pretty much closes down after Labor Day. From there we went north along the western edge of the very full lake and rounded through Idaho back home. It seems that the trip back home is never as exciting as the trip out. Did you ever notice that? So this is the end of the great Bear Lake adventure. Or at least our latest adventure.