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Somehow or another we unded up at our whitewater rafting destination an hour early. Since I'm usually rushing to get to my appointments, this was a very unusual situation for us and we had to kill time. One of the Rocky Mountain Adventure guides told to us about Bridal Veil Falls.
What a fun little serendipitous sidebar we had. There is a great Indian lore story involved with the falls about two lovers from different tribes unable to be together. Norita threw herself off the cliff so Mother Nature made the falls for her as a symbol of her bridal veil and the mist off the top was her spirit heading up to the heavens. The tall rocks on either side of the falls symbolize the brave's shoulders.
We then met our group of rafters and rode 6 miles up the river. On the bus ride up, the guides started telling all their tall tales of their fellow guide freinds who are having mishaps on the Moab and the Weber Rivers...which are running extremely high. Our little Provo River is controlled by the dam of the Deer Creek Lake but Lily wasn't having any of it. When the guides started talking about the two bridges named Point of No Return and Bridge of Death I thought we lost Lily completely....but she persevered....thank goodness,.. because it was like a lazy river the whole way down. We didn't even have to paddle, we just floated and our guide rowed. Of course Liam sat in the front and got splashed with the 55 degree water and L & L both jumped out and ran along the bottom for awhile. We saw many fly fisherman and some beaver dams as we floated through these beautiful canyons created by glaciers 300 million years ago. The layers in the rocks must be geologer's dream.
Next stop...lunch at the Sundance Resort. I now consider this place 'heaven on earth'. Sundance is nestled in the valley below the majestic and stately Mount Timpanogos. The incline of the mountain is so steep that it has to be a mountain for expert skiers. The area seems completely devoid of commercialization and I think that was Robert Redford's intention. He organized a contingent of like minded business men and bought thousands of acres to keep the developers out. Actually, as I write this I just realized that the look and feel of the resort area is ironically like Paul Newman's Westport Theater. I guess that is no surprise but I think it was unintentional. There is a theater on the grounds and a couple of restaurants but it's all rustic and wooden. I thought it was a magical place and I would love to go back and see Sundance in the different seasons.
I was struck by Robert Redford's words: This place in the mountains, amid nature's casualness toward death and birth, is the perfect host for the inspiration of ideas: harsh at times, life threatening in its winters of destruction, but tender in attention to the details of every petal of every wildflower resurrected in the spring. Nature and creativity obey the same laws,to the same end: life.
- Robert Redford
All of my musings aside, the big news was that we witnessed a rescue on our scenic chairlift ride up to the top of the mountain. Some guy fell out of the chairlift! He was a big guy and in his 20's. We don't know if it was a dare or what but we heard he was holding on for 100 yards before he dropped. The fall wasn't that far and he was alive but the big lesson to Lily and Liam and everyone is KEEP THE BAR DOWN AND DON'T MESS AROUND! In spite of that activity the chairlift ride was amazing and offered several opportunities for vertigo and adrenaline rushes...whoa Nelly... All 3 of us are too chicken to do the hot air balloon ride now.
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