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Show '•V. The Park Record A-14 THE CANYONS-, l i t PARK TRAILS C I T Y , 3-.5DD •-**%.. Wed/Thurs/Fri, October 13-15, 2004 SUNDAY IN THE PARK UTAH ACRES By Teri Orr • A splendorous adventure lisa Prices increase October 23rd. Save now! Season Passes Students Through ; After 10/23/04 10/23/04 Summit & Wasatch County Student (grades K-12) Summit & Wasatch County Honor Roll* ;V ; 1 - Rsnew/ai , $349' Utah College Students /. '; ; $159 : : " $99 $119 $70 : ' • New" $370 • .. :<;,:. Full A d u l t Pass ; ,'"•'•';•' r • After ^ Renewal New 12/11/04 :_ , , ' $540 Ski Bum Full (unrestricted)* Adult ~ ' :&<[ Through 12/11/04- Park City C h a m b e r Members Ski Bum Midweek* ' ; ... : >-V- i\'r';^;':.\ (All Full- OR Part-time students qualify for pass) •<%:: :.-, • $565 ,;-f.• • $720 By Jay Meehan / . -'••;" •; , ; . . .-- N . ; V it--,-, • / ' . " . - • • Empty spaces Through 10/23/04 i (Valid 7 days a week-no blackouts) ' : • Adult Midweek Pass (Valid Sun-Fri, not valid 12/27-12/31/04, 2/20-2/27/05)"'-1$ . '• ^ - r i - " - * - $ .- • • - • • • - # $ £ •.-.- ! ; - 10/23/04 '.•••-, • - • - ' ••-/**'-hM5.a'w» ^ v ^ & ^ ^ • £ • „ , .•?. c - $24 per day (junior). /, m\, W •--;•o ' ••"•;• • ^ Ski and ride at The Canyons for as little as with an Electronic Coupon Bookt ^ "•":•-*>• ,J^U.y:;4^y' Ib purchase your pass, qall 615-341O'fi|J0^ or log on to www.thecaiiyons.com ^ ;|> Adult Passholder Benefits ' • J; - >:;? • • • • Free parking pass for first come, first serve parking in Sundial Lot next t o Sunrise lift... i>.."Guest passes for only $54 (limit 1 ticket per day, per pass) •. v:"-Midweek Passhoiders may purchase passes for themselves during blackout dates for $52 10% savings on food, ski or snowboard rentals, Ski & Snowboard Adult group lessons .;.,*. : (excludes holidays) ^'^& • Save 25% on lift tickets at Stearnboat in Colorado - -.-. ••:"/ •_• '•>••*'• V*i$-\\ • Included in your Season Pass purchase is a one-year subscription t o SKIING magazine.' ;'-•'-': (This offer valid in US only. Orje ber household.) "•':"-.• • 2 0 0 3 / 2 0 0 4 A d u l t Passhoiders pferl g e t y o u r pass in t h e mail - j u s t g i v e us p e r m i s s i o n i; , '. .,;. . : - ; . . '•:'., '" •. " : 'Participating Junior and Senior High Schools only. Honor roll stilus dctermintd by th« icnodl. **For omploy^ca of businesses who ara Park City Chamber momben. Mutt show proof of employment. 1 ' " The Canyoni Cottage Season Pass it for full- OR part-time college or university students. Must show proof of enrollment Senion aro defined • • I 65 or older. 6 ind under *kl free an day tickets or may buy a paw for a £45 service fee. Electronic Coupon Books are offered to Utth reildonK " only. Muil show proof of Utah {eiidency to receive locals pricing. Prices subject to change. Psu rates «re based on the age of the pauholder on; November 15,2004. Other restrictions may apply. ',;";' ..&:- ;*Li->,r:- • i EXPLORE- EXPER CORE SAMPLES •$699, : to u s e l a s t y e a r ' s p i c t u r e . Thad seen the blonde staying in the room next to I made a wish in the fountain out front, the year my son Amine at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs many Randy - the lovable science geek - graduated from coltimes before Saturday night. In the indoor pool, strolling lege. I didn't know what happiness would look like for around the manicured grounds, admiring the swans, him in his future but I wished hard he would'find it. I had laughing brightly in the famed Tavern dining room. Her no idea wishes at the Broadmoor are so powerful. attire had been what 1 think retailers and front desk peoMy son married a woman he met in France while ple refer to as "resort casual." Smart jeans with a Ralph they were both exchange students there, though she Lauren T-shirt, sneakers, you know the look. "Studied attended Emery College in Georgia and her family lived casual" 1 call it. And though I have studied it, I have not for decades in Colorado Springs. For her master's mastered it. degree she came to the University of Utah and she and On Saturday afternoon I saw her transform. Gone Randy were married two years later. She stood by him were daywear looks and in their place was a stunning on his long march to a doctorate degree, and their first white balJ gown complete with a burgundy sash. You child, Izabelle Paris, was bom a month before Randy could see her shoes were new, too. Her blonde bob was defended his dissertation. This summer their second simple and shining. As she sailed off down the hallway, I child. Axel Theodore, joined the family. It was his caught a glimpse of her, twirling in her dress, just like a entrance that forced my kids to consider some help when coming back to the Springs to celebrate the wedlittle girl would do. . ... ding of Liz's sister, The next morning, rather early (before 8 on Becky. a Sunday morning away Most weeks I • • The next morning, rather early from home is exceedingly spend a couple hours (before 8 on a Sunday morning away fromwith Mz Iz and her famearly) I saw, a bit to my surprise, the sleepy-eyed home is .exceedingly early) I saw, a bit to ily. My son and his wife blonde wander out of her always appear evenmy surprise, the sleepy-eyed blonde wan- tempered despite the room still wearing her beautiful gown from the best efforts of a two-, der out of her room still wearing her beau- soon-to-be night before. I learned three-year tiful gown from the night before." later she had danced •old, to .push all limits, every dance at the wed^ ^ a ^ m m m mmmm^^^^^^^^^Sii Traveling together for ding, become intoxicated '••''/'•" the first time, I figured, from the heady mixed perfume of chocolate-cove red would reveal all our warts in this perfect picture. But the strawberries and her own nosegay of burgundy roses bucolic nature of the Broadmoor only magnified the and hydrangeas. After an entire evening of everyone good stuff. Randy and Liz are truly the most patient partelling you how beautiful you look in your beautiful ents I have ever been around. In Randy's case, far more dress, well, I guess the whole experience went to her patient that the stock he comes from. He explains conpretty little head a bit. She insisted on sleeping in her cepts and story books in the same measured detail. He does not force food or withhold hugs. Liz never misses • dress. But when she pushed the adjoining door to my room an opportunity to let Iz know when she has done a good open and came inf fists in sleepy eyes and crawled up job or is a sweet big sister or to tell her daughter how into my luxurious feather bed, still in her beautiful while lovely she looks. Izzie, by turn, tells her daddy "you satin gown and stuck her thumb in her mouth and said. cute" when he puts on his swim trunks for the pool; and "Cartoons Oma?'" I was, once again, hopelessly under tells her momma "you so pretty" when she dresses for her spell. Mz Iz has been the flower girl at her aunt's dinner. Iz decided this trip that wearing Oma's jewelry wedding and my son and his wife had brought me along would be fun and so at various times she had on my to help with the children during the multi-day extrava- watch and necklace and bracelets galore. She always ganza. I had the strange out-of-body experience of feel- said "Thank you Oma" as she acquired another jewel. ing a bit like I was Izzie's age, seeing the whole lime The night of the wedding, I was left to enjoy the now clearly through her eyes and yet from the balcony per- laughing and smiling and gurgling thrcc-month-old spective of my years. Think "Eloise at the Plaza Hotel" Axel. I showed him the swans outside our window and with the ability to order a glass of merlot and topped off whispered to him he had the good fortune to be born by a massage, and you have the picture. into a family that loved each other so completely it look Iz and I had a full measure of quality time in a quali- my breath away. Then I did more than wish with liim. I ty place. The world-renowned resort, set at the base of said a little prayer of thanks, because, like the maple the Rocky Mountains and built in opulent extravagance leaves that were turning and falling and blowing around in the early 1900s, is a place suspended between dreams. the grounds, we never know where life will lake us. I Nearly a hundred years later, it has surpassed the dreams knew at that moment I was living in a state of grace and of the Penrose family that designed it, and gave it the needed to acknowledge it. patina of Old World charm. It is a small city unto itself When we arrived home on Sunday, we were all still with gift shops and galleries, restaurants and ballrooms, smiling. On the way up the canyon, as the blue sky a golf course and spa. became overcast and the rain started to fall, I cried at the I had never stayed at the Broadmoor before this visit, joy of sharing a time so magical. It had been a watercolthough I had been there a few times for receptions in the or four-day adventure and I held it close as my head hit years my son went to school at Colorado College, there my own feather pillow and I drifted on this Sunday, back in the Springs. I remember walking around the lake on in the Park... those grounds, maybe 10 years ago, trying hard tqimag- * . T^prrda former editor of'The Jftrk Record inc who'the people." were who stayed in a place so grand. ' director of the Park City 'Performing Arts Center. 7N C E uuu.thecanyons-com CITY. UTAH e take it for granted. We dont know how good sandstone cliffs are cause to meditate upon geological we got it up here in the greater Park City-Heber time, but, if route-finding along the kayenta formation or ecosystem. It^ so bio-diverse. It s so beautiful. It's so lush! taking-off your pack and sucking in your gut so as to The whole place, even in our current drought, reeks of squeeze through a narrows slot in the Navajo sandstone green. Even the sagebrush in these parts exudes promise. becomes tedious, you can always glance upward and We see it every day and become jaded. We take little bear witness to the power of a breeze over Jurassic lime- ••*.;" v notice of the abundant glories that populate the land- frames. But, we're digressing here. We have yet to finish dealscape. Until, that is, we hightail it down south to Utah's ing with the bleak and seemingly abandoned desert country - as your faithful scribe did this past weekend - an area that has been rendered barren by desertscape. Lest we forget, this country is desolate, desenvironmental extremes. You look around and see titute, and. most of all, devoid of inspiration. It is nothing more than a wild and windswept wasteland. absolutely nothing - no thing. So don't pay no mind to those windows and arches There is "nada" upon the land, certainly nothing of interest. It is one big void. It is so booooring! Even the and natural bridges that pop-up when and where you nomadic hunters and gatherers who began wandering least expect them. Especially the Dewey bridge, slick the locale following the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago rock, and Moab tongue members of the entrada formahad trouble maintaining interest - they just kept moving tion. And never mind those long streaks of desert varnish on. Actually, they were coating that 800-foot secable to locate pockets lion of vertical wall in redof microcrystalline There is "nada" upon the land, cer- dish brown and black. quartz from which to The ravens tainly nothing of interest. It is one big void.. whooshing chip knives and scrapabout the ers and dart points. It is so booooring! Even the nomadic canyons certainly don't The desert provided the red-rock eyehunters and gatherers who began wander-give something of use. candy a second glance. ing the locale following the Ice Age about Neither do the great blue But, other than that, or the goshawks or save for the Mormon 10,000 years ago had trouble maintainingherons hummingbirds or woodtea, saltbush, greasepeckers. They, along with interest- they just kept moving on." wood, Russian tlustle, . the bluebirds and mocksnakeweed, rabbitingbirds, are too bored brush, and hackberry, the place is bleak. It's deserted. It is abandoned, forsak- with their infertile habitat lo pay much heed. Yeah, if you needed to crunch numbers as a way of en, hollow, unfilled. Especially if you don't count the ever-present tamarisk, or the skunkbush. Don't you just defining this vacant and impoverished land, you wouldn't. have to go much further than zilch, zero, zed. You'd think love the names? Then there are the willows, which, along with the cot- it had been bombed, burned, and bulldozed. How could tonwoods, are the dominant native plants in the stream- anything survive in such a sterile environment? side environments. Along riparian hiking trails the wilObviously, the jackrabbits and chipmunks and squirlow bark glistens to a deep beautiful red where human rels dont have time to think about it - or the beavers and hands, over time, grasped for balance or to swing-out on porcupines, for that matter. It even appears that the coya moderate crux move. But that isnt to say the place isn't otes and ringtails and fox dont see it as an issue. If we did-; bare and austere. nt know better, we might come to the conclusion that any Yup, if you were to overlook the snowberry, purple ecosystem supporting mountain lions and wildcats couldsage, ash, cliffrose, mahogany, and serviceberry, why, you nt be all that lacking. And how Trout them mule deer and would quickly come around lo the fact that the ground- pronghorns and bighorn sheep? scape is gaunt and grim. It is stark and unfulfilled. Why, Just about the time you have come to terms with the its damned near dead, ft s a wonder the juniper, pinion sparse aridity of canyon country, while emerging from a pine, Douglas fir, and box elder cant find some better "water feature" of bullfrogs and salamanders and scramplace to hang with each other. bling through boulders where collared lizards strut their • Its obvious that the biscuitroot and btanketflowers are stuff, you hear what you think is the afro-cuban maraca only passing through. The same for the yuccas and the beat of a prairie rattler. All God's children got rhythm. primrose and the sunflowers and the mule's ears. Same And then when you break over the canyon top to the goes for the sego lilies and milkweed and paintbrush and plateau, you'll no doubt be staring down a laccolithic lupine and larkspur. There is absolutely nothing to hold mountain range like the La Sals or the Abajos or the ones interest thereabouts. It is an unfurnished flat. Henrys - wannabe volcanoes that didnt quite cut the • i Andiif all the emptiness isnt enough to shake your mustard. Is this any way to run a desert? faith; tine forests of prickly pear cacti around every bend There certainly isnt much in these parched environs of the arroyo might give you further pause to yawn - as to fill the heart and nurture the soul, unless, of course, would the wheatfields of cheatgrass and the hanging gar- you "get" it. From the clouds to the layers of rock and dens dotting the cliffsides and alcoves. down to the dark of the slot canyons, there is magic to be . Ah yes, the alcoves. Not that these oftentimes huge had. It^ a Maynard Dixon thing. Emptiness is in the eye Weathexed and eroded indentations into the sides of of the beholder. |