Sorry for the delay, but I’ve been trying to get all the pics uploaded to save time on the back side for each of the posts to come in the future.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get the rest of the posts up in the next couple of days   I’ve also managed to get the pics uploaded to the gallery where I’m still working on getting them all added to the public files – click here for that area

As you’ve seen from the title, these pics come from my trip north from Price, UT up to Salt Lake City 8)  Please make sure to click on the pictures – especially the panoramas – to see the pictures full size.  I put up the full size pics because they’re the best I can offer even if they do take forever and a day to upload   On with the pics

This entire area is known as “Castle Country” and got that name from this place.  Before the road was cut through, it used to look rather like a castle gate

Shortly after going north through the Castle Gate, we found this turnout area and I had Cindy pull over so I could get pictures.

Two things you’ll find in abundance in Carbon County, UT are coal and railroads.  This is a processing facility for a nearby coal mine.

Mining is a vital but extremely dangerous job.  The people in this area of the country are proud of their hard working miners and you’ll find many memorials to those who’ve lost their lives in the coal mines.

There seem to be as many informational signs and plaques about mining and railroads as there are memorials to miners around Carbon County, UT.

Remember how I said there’s lots of coal mines?  Here’s an example of just how much coal there is in the hills.  All those black lines are coal layers in the rock.  This coal is too low of a grade to mine – there’s too much stuff in it that’s not combustible.

It’s not just mining and railroads in the history of Carbon County – there’s also tales of outlaws and lawmen.  Cindy’s grandpa told stories of Butch Cassidy stopping by the family farm to trade for supplies and horses when he was young.

The trip from Price, UT to Salt Lake City, UT takes you through a high mountain canyon which is usually windy.  These windmills make sense here.

We got to the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill AFB about 45 minutes before it closed, but I still got plenty of pictures

Talk about a HUGE cargo plane !!!  This C-124 is the same type of plane that brought the first U-2 Dragon Lady from Palmdale, CA to Area 51 where it was tested.  The U-2 was the first airplane to be tested at Area 51 and was the initial reason for the base at Groom Lake.

One of the earlier jets in the USAF arsenal was the F-89 Scorpion.  I recognized it and immediately thought of The Battle of Palmdale.

Scholars of the Korean War will know exactly what MiG Alley was.  For the rest of my readers, I’ll just tell you that it was a stretch of North Korea near MiG bases in China where aerial combat between F-86 Sabre Jets and MiG-15s was frequent.

The F-102 Delta Dagger was an Air Force interceptor during the Cold War with the mission of downing Soviet bombers over the U.S.

Another interceptor from the Cold War was the F-101 Voodoo.  I’ve met quite a few men who flew these jets and they all speak well of it.  Speed and a high rate of climb were a couple of its strengths.

Used by countries around the world, the MiG-17 Fresco was similar to the MiG-15, but was equipped with an afterburner.  Bill Reesman is a Vietnam Veteran who once trained to fight against MiGs but now flies a MiG-17 painted in the colors of Red Bull.

Still serving as a front line fighter in some countries’ air forces, the MiG-21 was the most advanced fighter in the North Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam War.  A worthy adversary for the U.S. fighters of that era, the MiG-21 also saw action against Israeli forces during the Six Day War.  Shortly after the Six Day War, an Iraqi pilot defected to Israel with his MiG-21 which was made available to the U.S. for testing and evaluation later on.  You can read about the U.S. Air Force’s exploitation of that foreign technology asset over at TD Barnes’ Area 51 Special Projects website   There are now several MiG-21s in private hands here in the U.S. where they’re flown as private aircraft.

You don’t often find a part of a Peacekeeper ICBM’s guidance system on display at most aviation museums.

Any Blackbird is a rare bird, but this one’s the rarest of them all and it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to make this trip.  The only SR-71C was built from unlikely parts.  The back half of the aircraft came from a YF-12A interceptor version of the Blackbird and the front end was originally an engineering mock-up.  Can you spot the differences between this SR-71C and most of the SR-71 Blackbirds out there?

Still in service with the Royal Australian Air Force, the F-111 was made to go very fast at very low altitude to avoid detection by enemy air defenses so it could hit its targets and hit them hard.  F-111s made history with a very long range raid flown from Great Britain where they bombed Libya in 1986′s Operation El Dorado Canyon.

One of the most famous Air Force and Navy fighters during the Vietnam War was the Phabulous F-4 Phantom.  This one’s painted in the Southeast Asia camouflage paint scheme normally used during that era.

Another star of the Vietnam War was the F-105 Thunderchief.  Also known as the Thud, the F-105 was supposed to carry a nuclear bomb, but also made a great conventional bomber.  Thuds did get some air to air kills over Vietnam and some were made with its 20mm cannon

The F-106 Delta Dart was another delta wing interceptor from the Cold War.  The plan was to get close enough to a Soviet bomber formation to launch its air to air rockets with their nuclear warheads before turning tail and running away from the blast.

Cindy seemed to like this one for some reason   The Firebee is a drone which was designed to give fighters a good target to train against.

Another Vietnam veteran in the museum was this F-100 Super Sabre.

You don’t usually see this weapon outside of the aircraft that was designed around it, so enjoy it when you can   The A-10 Thunderbolt II is also known as the Warthog, but it’s known for this gun.  Firing several thousand armor piercing 30mm depleted uranium slugs every minute, this gun could stop the aircraft with its recoil if fired for too long and the rounds can penetrate the front armor of any tank.

The Hill Aerospace Museum does quite a bit of restoration work.  This F-4 Phantom is getting some TLC for later display.

I can’t help but think of Alan Alda and the rest of the cast of MASH when I see this helicopter

A later version of the F-86 Sabre Jet was this F-86L Sabre Dog.  It got the Dog name from the big black radome on its nose.

This P-38 Lightning was recovered from its Alaskan crash site and restored for display.

I’ve always loved the P-40 Warhawk and especially when it wears the shark’s mouth made famous by the Flying Tigers over China.

Developed from and very closely related to the Piper Cub, this L-4J Grasshopper was used for artillery spotting and actually served in Italy during WWII.  It was later used by the Civil Air Patrol, but was retired after a flying accident.

Produced in larger numbers than any other heavy bomber in WWII, the B-24 Liberator was very fast due to its wing design.  There are now only two B-24s flying in the world and very few in museums.  Seeing this one was a real treat!

Often called the greatest fighter in WWII, the P-51 Mustang is one of the most numerous warbirds flown today.  A flying P-51 can be purchased for about $1,000,000 but they’re not for the faint of heart – the torque from that Rolls Royce Merlin engine can make it a very tricky airplane to control during takeoff and landing.

The P-47 Thunderbolt excelled at ground attack during WWII in the European theater.

I hope everyone recognizes a B-17 when they see one.  Daylight raids by B-17s like this one helped break Nazi Germany.

The Curtis Jenny was one of the most prolific trainers for the U.S. Army Air Force during WWI.  Surplus Jennies were cheap after the war and helped spark the golden age of barnstorming.

An absolutely gorgeous jet and a true classic, the F-86 Sabre Jet carried six .50 caliber machine guns and had a radar to feed the range to its gun sight which made first round hits much more common.  This jet had a greater than 10:1 kill ratio over the MiG-15 over Korea.

One of the USAF’s first operational fighter jets was the F-80 Shooting Star.  These jets saw combat over Korea before the F-86 Sabre Jet arrived.

The Wright Flyer was the first airplane to demonstrate controlled, sustained, powered flight.  This is a good replica and very true to my recollection of the original Wright Flyer which is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

This is a replica of a later Wright airplane.

This was a rather touching poem and statue near the museum.

S.L.U.F. stands for Short Little Ugly F**er and wasn’t always said with affection.  Still, the A-7 was a good ground attack aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and a few foreign air forces as well.

Standing guard at the front gate is this beautiful F-4 Phantom.  The high visibility white and orange paint scheme is often used on aircraft in training squadrons.

The C-130 Hercules is an outstanding cargo aircraft which can operate off concrete or unprepared surfaces, but I really wanted pics of the B-29.  The Superfortress is the same type of plane that firebombed Japan and dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  B-29s are rather rare in museums, but even more rare flying.  The Confederate Commemorative Air Force is the owner of the one and only B-29 still flying today.

I’d love to see a B-47 fly, but there are none that I know of in private hands.  Movie buffs will recognize this type of aircraft from the movie Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart.

Bomarc missiles guarded the United States and Canada against bomber attack from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  They were initially boosted by a rocket motor which accelerated the missile to a high enough speed for the Marquardt ramjets to function.  These missiles had a slant range of several hundred miles at speeds of about Mach 2.5 which helped them to get close enough to a bomber formation for its nuclear warhead to take out many of the enemy planes.

I initially thought this was a mobile launcher, but it’s actually a vehicle that was made to transport Minuteman missiles to their silos before lowering them into the ground.  Still, it’s pretty cool

These houses looked like they were in very good shape, but we were running out of daylight and wanted to get to the Temple so we declined to take the tour.  Maybe next time

This memorial to the initial pioneer settlers in Salt Lake City was originally placed in 1897, but looks brand new.

The Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was built only with hand tools, oxen, and simple machines like ropes and pulleys as were all the furnishings inside.  It took 40 years to complete and is a wonderfully beautiful structure.  Only members of the Church of Latter Day Saints are allowed inside the Temple, but the rest of the grounds are open to the public.  The visitors’ center has a large cut-away model of the Temple showing the details inside.

That’s it for tonight, but I’ll be back with more tomorrow   I hope y’all enjoyed this part of my trip at least partly as much as I did

Have a great night