Timpanogos Cave Will Open Saturday; Snow Cleared From Trail

Timpanogos Cave will open as scheduled Saturday because employees and volunteers spent some 1,128 hours shoveling snow from the trail. Park officials had expressed doubts earlier that the massive snowpack, said to be the deepest in 25 years, could be cleared in time. Drifts were up to 15 feet deep in some areas.

Park officials say they're now down to bare asphalt on the trail, which climbs 1,160 feet from the parking area to the cave entrance. The cave it located in the mountains northeast of Provo.

Timpanogos Cave is a national monument and is managed by the National Park Service.

Snowbird Extends Skiing, May Be Open Into Summer

(The information below was provided as a news release by Ski Utah.)

SNOWBIRD, UTAH – With more than 11 feet of snow on the ground at mid-mountain, Snowbird announced today it will extend its season into June and possibly beyond.

Snowbird President Bob Bonar said today he feels confident the resort will be able to offer skiing and riding daily through Sunday, May 11, and then Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 1 (including Monday, May 26, Memorial Day).

“With last week’s storm and additional precipitation this week it looks like we’ll have plenty of snow for great skiing through the last weekend of May, beginning of June,” said Bonar. “We will continue to offer skiing and riding as long as the conditions are safe, enjoyable and there’s interest.”

Snowbird lifts have run as late as July 4 in two previous seasons. Bonar said this week it is too early to know if that’s a possibility this year.

Previously not scheduled to operate for the remainder of the spring schedule, the Little Cloud chairlift began operating today and will continue to do so for the remainder of the spring schedule along with Peruvian Express, Mineral Basin Express and Peruvian Tunnel. The resort is open for skiing and riding 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Sunday, May 11. Beginning May 16, the hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lift tickets are $59.

The Aerie and Atrium restaurants, both located in the Cliff Lodge, celebrate Mother’s Day with brunches beginning at 9 a.m. in the Aerie and 10:30 a.m. in the Atrium. For reservations call (801) 933-2181.

Spring vacation packages and additional information about operating days and hours are available at http://www.snowbird.com/.

Register Now for the Golf Wasatch Long Day Challenge

The Long Day Challenge is a four-person team scramble golf tournament set in scenic Heber Valley. It is scheduled for June 20-21.

It will be held on Heber's three distinctive, award-winning golf courses, and will include 72 total teams, 288 players and 45 holes.

The first place team will win a golf trip to Pinehurst NC, to stay in a luxury home provided by The Markers - Golfers Residence Club.

Tournament Overview
Tournament Details
Registration

Golf Wasatch website

New Visitor Center In Monument Valley

A new visitor center in Monument Valley will officially open on May 5, 2008, as the keys to the $2.8 million facility are handed from Utah to the Navajo Nation during a sunrise ceremony. The Navajo Parks and Recreation Department will operate the facility, located at the Monument Valley Tribal Park entrance on U.S. 191 at the Utah-Arizona border.

“We are delighted this state of the art facility is opening for travelers. The ability to assist the 500,000 visitors attracted to Monument Valley each year is invaluable,” says San Juan County Visitor Services director Charlie Delorme. “Personal interaction will allow us to share information with our guests not only about the valley, but also additional Utah travel destinations.”

For more information on the Monument Valley area, contact Charlie Delorme at (435) 587-3235 ext. 5006.

See Our New Moab Pages

At utah.com, we have expanded and improved our Moab section, adding a tremendous amount of new information and photographs.

See the new pages here: www.utah.com/moab/

We are slowly going through each section of our website, adding new content as we also improve the organization and usability of the site. So far we've improved these sections: Park City, Salt Lake City, St George and now Moab. We are also working to improve our national park pages.

We are working with photographers to get new images on the site. We're adding photo galleries for each major destination. We'll also be adding more video clips.

We are also working to post more information about hiking trails. We are putting trail information into a database so it is easy to manage, and also easy for readers to find. We now have comprehensive information about virtually all maintained trails in the national parks and we are working hard to add popular trails outside of the parks.

In addition to good information, we also want to have photos and video clips showing popular trails. We are adding those things as rapidly as we can.

We welcome comments and suggestions as we work to improve this website.

FrontRunner Train Eases Travel Between Salt Lake And Ogden

It looks like Utah's new FrontRunner commuter rail service will be popular, and will help ease travel between Ogden and Salt Lake City.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

"UTA is expecting about 6,000 daily riders once people start paying fares on Thursday. But the initial rush of riders has been encouraging, Bohnsack-Ware said.

UTA continues to work out kinks with FrontRunner's free wireless Internet access, which has been spotty in the first days. The system should be fully functional within a week, Bohnsack-Ware said."

The Deseret Morning News reports:

Utah Transit Authority officials are hailing today as a day of success for FrontRunner, the just-opened commuter rail line between Ogden and Salt Lake City.

"It's better than expected today," Bohnsack-Ware said.

See UTA's map and schedules for FrontRunner

Ride 'Em, Cowgirl In Utah

The London Times looked at the best travel articles it published during the past year and selected 10 all American travel stories.

At number 3 on the list, "Ride 'em, cowgirl in Utah."

With a favorable exchange rate, the paper says interest is high in travelling to the US. Writer Lisa ter Haar describes her family adventure. Here's her introduction:

"There’s a time to be born, a time to die, and a time to walk on the wild side and spend 10 days in the cowboy state of Utah on a cattle drive, eating dust like the early American settlers. The mothers among them would have been lucky to see a half century, given childbirth and heavy labour.

"But, 150 years on, as a fiftysomething financially independent single mother of two teenagers, I aimed to “cowboy up” and move 810 Angus cattle 100 miles from their summer grazing south of Alton to the north rim of the Grand Canyon."

Read the complete article.