Saturday, October, 7th 2023
While we were in Utah, we decided to visit Golden Spike National Historical Park and we are glad we did! For those who do not know the story of the Golden Spike and the original transcontinental railroad, it is as important as the the story of our nation. The National Historical Park is located in what was the Town of Promontory, UT and the location where the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad joined their lines to connect the east coast and west coast of the United States for the first time by rail.
They have two full-sized Victorian era replicas of the original steam engines that met at Promontory on that day in 1869. It was very nice to watch Sidney grill the Train Engineer with lots of questions well beyond his age. The visitor center itself was okay but it was clear the engines were the “stars” of the show. Sidney also completed another Junior Ranger program and added to his badge collection.
After watching the arrival of the engines we jumped in the truck and explored the surrounding park.
For more information about the National Historical Park you can visit the National Parks Service’s Website
After leaving the park, we explored the area by driving out to the Spiral Jetty, which is an earthworks sculpture (technically) in the Great Salt Lake. It was a little hard to see because we weren’t up high enough but it was still cool to explore the area. We also drove to the Chinese Arch on the Grand Auto Tour road out of the park and explored a little.
