Little House In the West: St. George and Kolob

The day after our Grand Canyon tour we headed back up to Utah. We stopped for most of the day in St. George where James spent the bulk of his mission. There we visited James' mission memories and made a few tourist stops. This is the Jacob Hamblin home. He lived here with his two wives and about 17 children. Or rather, they lived here while he traveled. This man is in the cowboy hall of fame for having logged the most hours in the saddle. Still hasn't been topped!

St. George temple. It is startling in its whiteness. There is a cool story that goes with the steeple tower too. Brigham Young did not like the original short tower that was about half the height of the current one. The city decided to dedicate it with the short tower anyway and shortly after, Brigham Young died. Exactly one year after Brother Brigham's visit to dedicate the temple lightning struck the tower and completely destroyed it. There was no other damage done to the entire building. The saints took it as a messeage from Brigham Young himself and rebuilt the new taller tower. Pretty funny, huh? Also, the temple is built of red brick and covered with a glittering white plaster. The pictures of it being built are strange when you see what actually stands before you. Oh yes, another interesting factoid: this is the first temple finished and dedicated after the saints migrated to Utah.

As evening set in we headed north and ended our trip with a stop in Kolob Canyon. We wanted to get there around sunset to see the red rock in its truest beauty. Below are some of the pictures we took as we made stops.

My children became obsessed with the binoculars on this trip. Unfortunately we had only one pair and it could have become ugly but my sweeties were pretty good at sharing.