On our recent trip this past weekend to Hardware Ranch, Joslin made a very interesting friend. No worries, the big guy had been tamed.

For a long time now I have wanted to take the family up to Hardware Ranch. It is a wildlife management area where they grow hay all summer long and feed it to the Elk that come down out of the mountains in the winter months. During the winter, you can take a sleigh ride out among the Elk. So we packed up the kids and made the trek to the mountains. It was quite a drive. This ranch is located near Logan UT which is about 2 hours from Salt Lake.

We arrived and they had a visitors center where they had all sorts of animals from the region stuffed and mounted. The kids had a blast looking at all the animals and feeling their coats. The visitors center had an over look and down below you could see the herd of elk.

We bought tickets and headed down to the sleigh ride area. The kids were excited and thought this was the coolest thing. Off we went and we actually rode into the middle of the herd. The driver would stop every once and a while to explain what they were doing and why. As we were leaving he took us by where the bucks would congregate. Those were some big antlers!

Afterward we tried to find somewhere to go sledding but much of the snow has already melted. Much to Noah’s disappointment, we could not find a place to sled at. Instead we headed back down the mountain and decided to go into Logan for lunch and to walk around the Logan temple. On the way down we scored a dozen tortillas. I know, kind of a random statement. Since moving to Salt Lake City we have not been able to find a good tortilla. Outside of Logan just happened to have a Tortilleria! Thus we scored a dozen tortillas! Woohoo!

Anywho, once in Logan we ate and then headed up to the temple. It was really amazing. I didn’t realize that it sat up on a big hill overlooking the entire town. When we pulled up Noah said, “Look at that castle!” And it kind of looked like one!