Tourist Traps

I love a good tourist trap, and of course, a good photo-op. And if those two go hand-in-hand, well, Woo-Hoo! Thankfully Jason loves tourist traps too. I did have to school him in the art of the photo-op though. He would come home from his business trips with a camera full of photos of landmarks. I finally told him, "I don't like pictures without people in them." Needless to say, I now have albums full of Jason standing by himself in front of every Asian landmark imaginable. So here are our fun non-Yellowstone side ventures/tourist traps/photo-ops (SLC excluded since it was in the previous post).


Wilson's Arch-24 miles south of Moab, Utah. I about made Jason have a wreck when I spotted this one, but it was just too good not to slam on the brakes for. 46 feet high with a span of 91 feet.


More rock scenery around Wilson's Arch. JR stoped stomping fireants just long enough for me to snap his picture.


It's Wyoming. And it looked just like I thought it would.



Unfortunately it was raining in Afton, Wyoming as we drove under the World's Largest Elkhorn Arch. So we had to settle for a picture with a much smaller version in Jackson Hole.

Raise your hand if you've been to Idaho. I have! I have!

Of course we had to stop at the World Famous Hole N" The Rock in Utah. Not only did we stop, we went on the 12 minute tour! Albert and Gladys Christensen blasted and drilled for 12 years to carve out a 5,000 square foot home for themselves, which them moved into in 1952. It has 14 rooms and remains exactly the same as it was when Gladys died in 1974. I don't have any pictures since they aren't allowed on the tour, but you can see most of it here.

Albert's memorial to FDR to the left, and one of their doors to the right.

And now for the piece de resistance of tourist traps: The Four Corners. I was thinking this would have been highly commercialized, but it wasn't at all. I think part of the problem is that it's so hard to get to. It is quite literally in the middle of nowhere. And sadly, this is the best picture I have. It was our turn to take pictures, but as you can see, the people to the right wouldn't wait their turn or get out of our picture. My idea was to just let the Rude Nonwaiting In Line People go on ahead and then take more pictures after they left, but Kyle had a major meltdown about wanting to climb the stairs leading up to the platform marker, so that was it for pictures. But after carefully looking, it does seem to appear that all the states are being touched.

Reed is clearly standing in both Utah and Arizona.

Kyle is in Arizona.

Jason is in Colorado and Utah.

And in the process of trying to make sure he was in Colorado, I do believe JR's back left heel is in New Mexico.

I was able to get JR to pose for my again, and I do believe his thumbs are barely touching New Mexico and Utah, putting him in all 4 states at once.