When our kids were still living at home, to celebrate the end of summer, we would go to Northern Utah. We decided to re-enact some of those adventures and add in some new ones. Our oldest daughter and her family came from Iowa and we spent the week literally going from one activity to the next. We planned the week around 5 themes…Adventure, Water, History, Geology, and Church.

Before we even left our home, we had our first exciting event….a bat near the shop door. Our son-in-law volunteered to lock the door, while trying to cover his face!!

We stayed at the Cherry Hills campground in Kaysville, Utah. The campground occupies an old cherry orchard. We checked in on a Sunday, which is their turnover day, so we almost had the campground to ourselves.

We had an awesome dinner of ribs and Iowa corn, then helped our son with an activity, as he is designing a pirate table top escape room and needed some guinea pigs to test it.

The next morning we headed to Park City to the Olympic Park. In 2002, our family spent 9 days in SLC for the Winter Olympics. We attended the Men’s Ski Jump and the Men’s Luge events, so it was definitely exciting for our daughter, Jodi and son Jade to be back. Jodi told her kids how we walked the Golden Mile up the hill from the parking lot to earn a special medallion. This was going to be our Adventure Day….

We had a morning pass to the park and decided our first activity would be the rope course at the Trackside Plaza. The course is in the middle of the bobsled/luge/skeleton track. Wyatt and Jade decided to do the higher course, while the rest of us did the lower course.

Next we hiked the Trackside Trail to the 361 foot long zipline

The zipline landed at the 65 foot Drop Tower. You take a big step off the tower and land on a soft cushion.

Wade was the person who had the most excitement…he hesitated and hit the platform with his backside with a big thud. There was an audible “OH” from all the guides. Thankfully the only thing bruised was his ego.

We headed to the Airbags. These are the same type of airbags that are used by stunt people. You can choose between a 5, 10, and 15 foot jump, where you land on your back.

We headed across the park to the ski jumping area known as Peak Plaza. We stopped at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Freestyle Pool to watch practice. In the summer, athletes and practice by landing in the pool with their skis on.

At the Extreme Tubing area, you ride a special designed inner tube down the Nordic ski jump landing hill. We started on the smaller K64 hill which included a short hike to reach the starting point.

Next it was on to the K90 tubing hill, where you can reach speeds of 50 mph. It is quite the rush. The turf is periodically moistened with sprinklers.

We rode the chair lift to the top to the Extreme Zip starting point.

The zip line covers 1442 feet, drops 40 stories in height, and reaches speeds up to 55 mph.

Jade was able to capture picture as he waited for the tubing adventure

Jim captured the pictures at the bottom of the hill

It had been a fast and furious morning, but we were onto the next Olympic adventure…riding an actual bobsled. For the actual ride, we would be in a 4-person bobsled, but since we needed a driver, we had to split up 3,2,and 2.

We had a brief safety lesson, were given head socks, and issued a helmet. Time to be buckled in.

Whitney, Wyatt, and CIG went first…Wyatt and Whitney were at the bottom, thinking they had the fastest time at 57.87. They were excited that you got to keep your head sock as a souvenir.

Jodi and Wade were next…there are 15 turns on the course with several of them reaching 4 Gs. You don’t realize how much force that is, until you experience it. We were able to watch their bobsled on the camera.

Whitney and Wyatt were not apologetic that they beat their parents

Last to go were Uncle Jade and Poppy…

The “big guys” won!!

What an amazing way to end our adventure at the Utah Olympic Park!!! Words used to describe the bobsled ride….fast, crazy force, wild turns, memorable, so much fun. You just can’t believe that the Olympians can sit as still as they do in the bob sled.

But our day wasn’t done….there was more fun to come!!!