The Heber Creeper.....Guardsman's Pass and The St. Regis.......

Today was about the only day we really had to get up and move....but we had to find our way to Heber City and the train depot by 1130a....so we were up and out.
It was an easy drive, but the signage to the depot was not good, so that took a minute, but we got there in time.....
The front of the depot.........

The ticket counter......

The chandelier has a train on it...too cute

The front of the Creeper train........it's called The Creeper because it had and has to creep throught the mountains....

The train was on the track.......waiting on us....

The caboose........it's suppose to be red...hummm. They had a small concession inside, popcorn/hotdogs/coke/coffee...etc, but we had our own....it was a gorgeous day for a ride on the rails.

All aboard...and the conductor tells us where we're headed, and how great it's gonna be, and right away the scenery was amazing...

My sashimi lunch......yum!!!!

This barn was part of an old movie, wish i could remember the name of it.....

We weren't far down the tracks when our train was held up by this gun-slinger...seems he thought we were carrying a box of money!!!! He searched around and then....

He spotted the box on the train platform.....

Well...he wasn't too happy when he found a rubber chicken in the box....

 He gave us all a good warning and left the train...firing his gun and hollering...

Seems there was a reward for him...perhaps we should have detained him and collected the money!!

Safely past this outlaw, we rolled on down the tracks....it was beautiful...a huge lake on one side and mountains on the other...

This young lady played for us periodically...she was really good....

Because it was off-season we had plenty of space, we could take up 2 seats and move from side to side to see things going by....it was a little chilly, but not bad....it was a lovely afternoon.

We rolled past a compground next to a stream, and at the base of a mountain....wow, now that would be a great place to hang for a while.

After an hour and a half  we pulled into Vivian Park. This was a lovely park but had a small upscale community right next to it. We got out, walked around, and the conductor moved the engine, then we headed back...

There was still some fall colors, but many leaves had already fallen....

He's directing the moving of the engine...

It had warmed up some so put our window down and I got a shot of the train rounding the corner..

This weird green "stuff" in the stream was interesting...wonder what it is???

And the beauty continued....

We came past this dam...

Then...our ride was over...back in the depot I took these pictures ...one is of all the many locks that have been used through the years, and the other is of many old train tickets....cool

 Now it was time to head back to Park City...we asked the really friendly gal in the depot for a suggested scenic route, we'd taken the highay over, and she said go over the mountain on Guardsman's pass....ok....so we headed out

Umm....YEP it was gorgeous.......see that blue sky, not a cloud...this was a good decision

 Aspen trees lined the road...wish they still had their gold leaves, but they were still pretty.

The hotels/condos accomodations in the mountains were stunning...winter here would be gorgeous..

Sometimes the road was a bit tight for 2 cars, but rarely did we see another car. It was really a wonderful slow ride. Some how we took a slight wrong turn and we ended up in Deer Valley....wow this was a great oops!!!

This lodge was really empty, but was a nice place to walk around...it was beautiful inside

 This plaque was on the wall of the ski lift building...was nice that they recognized these athletes.

Then I spotted this cable car....I'd seen it when we were on the road and wondered what it was....it belongs to the St. Regis....you know we had to go check it out. Seems their lobby, and this lovely fire lit entrance, is about all that is on the "ground" level ...everything else, restaurants, bar, rooms, patio are all up the mountain...so ....

up we went....

See that huge empty parking lot....it was very quiet here now....summer was over and winter hadn't started, was actually kinda nice...

Their pool....and hot tub....WOW the view!!!

After looking around we ordered some delish hot chocolate...with Bailey's....YUM!!! We were the only people there....

This is what they call "the beach"...it's a large flat grassy area where folks actually sun. The wonderful waitress told us there are some winter days folks are out there too...bikini tops but maybe jeans on the bottom....and u could ski right off the mountain onto the beach....was a cool idea....we kinda prefer sand on our beaches!!!

When we decided to have a 2nd cup, we moved over to these comfy chairs in the sun...the scenery was amazing and right about sunset....

They lit this beautiful rock garden...it put off some heat, but was just nice to sit in front of...

They brought us blankets at sunset and it was wonderful. We'd been told that at 630p everyday they did a champagne toast...but it's done a little differently....it's based on a very old tradition.

I video'd the ceremony, but it was so large I had to post it in 2 parts....enjoy, it's really very neat.

We got to take pictures with the sabre and the champagne bottle that he cut the top off of...what a neat afternoon tradition..

As it was getting darker, it was getting colder, so, back down the funicular...and back to home in Park City which was only aout 15min away....what a wonderful slow fun filled day.

Tomorrow we'll venture down to Salt Lake City.........