Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Weber County Campgrounds

We recently moved to Utah and finally got around to trying out some Utah camping. We drove up Utah highway 39, since one of the campgrounds up there had been recommended. There were tons of sites along that road, but as we went they were all full.

We ended up finding a site at Weber County Campgrounds North Fork/Weber Memorial. It is at 1181 N. Fairgrounds Drive. The address on the slip says Ogden, but we went out of Ogden and past Huntsville. The office number is 801 399-8491 if this post does not deter you.

All of the campgrounds along that road seemed to have access to the river, so that could potentially be good.

There were a couple of sites that looked like they had potential at this campground, but all that was left were some really bad sites. Sites that had no shelter from the road.

Positives
  • Fairly decently spaced out sites.
  • Nice, but limited scenery. There was a steep mountainous hill across the road from our campsite. There were caves you could see and lots of evergreen trees.
  • There appeared to be a camp site you could get that could hold many campers, tents, or whatever if you had a big family gathering. It had a big open area. Not sure how they break it up or the cost. Our single site was $15.
Negatives
  • Not much for the kids to do or explore. There was a cave up high that was nice to look at, but was a very steep to climb. We attempted it and I feared for the safety of my children and myself and brought us down.
  • Camp site we stayed in was right next to the road and a blind curve.
  • There appeared to be very little maintenance of the grasses and shrubbery. The campsite was next to the river, but you had to go down a steep path that was grown over with shrubbery, including thorns. Although the scenery up above the campsites was great, at ground level everything was covered with weeds.
  • Once we got to the river we found that there was just a tiny area for one person to stand. No place to sit by the river. As I looked across the river I could see an opening to a well landscaped campsite with a nice open access to the river. That side hand rocks that made a shallow area to gradually get in the river. Our side had a 3-4 foot drop off. It looked almost like someone had taken the rocks from our side and landscaped them onto the other side. I found out from the camp host that it was not available to us and it would used by their friends and family. She said that her husband was a lawn fanatic, so he had done it up nice.
  • Dusty and lots of bugs. Especially if you tried to explore. Pretty much the first mosquitoes I have seen in Utah were at this place.
  • The road going through the campsites was very narrow.
The kids seemed to end up having an ok time. I asked my son what he liked and here is what he listed. Setting up the tent, trying to climb to the cave, and eating outside. Trying to climb to the cave was the only thing on the list that we couldn't have done at home.

Any recommendation anyone has for camping around Ogden would be greatly appreciated.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Anybody Else Getting Junk From Wal-Mart?

I seemed to be having more and more things I have to return to Wal-Mart because they are junk. Recently: Inflatable swimming pool that leaks air the second time we use it. Sprinkler that ended up being assembled upside down, so it sprayed at the ground (I blame myself a little bit for not looking at it more closely in the store, but it should not have made it to the shelf), and a Y splitter for outside faucet with independent shut offs on each side of the Y had one of the shut off knobs come off after a couple of weeks of use and water sprayed all over the place.

I do a large percentage of my shopping at Wal-Mart, so is this just a trend of merchandise in general or is Wal-Mart just selling junk?

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Passage to Zarahemla (2008)

The movie was fairly well done and very enjoyable, but short and not entirely developed. At the end they had closed things up enough to close the film. A few other things would have been nice to get closure on and could have made the film better, but then they reopened a key part of the movie and created a little bit of a continuity problem.

Short answer, it was worth watching.

Juno (2008)

As I had feared this movie was a bit trashy. Even though there were many witty and funny parts in it, the girl was profane. Right from the opening scene you see a pair of panties hit the floor. Even though the vital parts are obscured or off camera what was going on was very explicit as was much of the talk in the movie.