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NEWS RELEASE May 27, 2004 Contacts: Tracie Cayford, (801) 538-8777 Spence Kinard, cell (801) 541-3349 Alan Rindlisbacher, cell (801) 557-3668 ON the ROAD AGAIN – SEEING UTAH’S EXTREMES Utah team begins summer vacation season with 2nd road trip Salt Lake City – Six Utah tourism promoters and adventures are taking to Utah’s roads again this Memorial Day weekend to visit some of the state’s unusual sites. Last year, Alan Rindlisbacher and his friends drove through all 29 Utah counties in 24 hours to celebrate the beginning of the summer vacation season. This year Spence Kinard, assistant director of the Utah Travel Council, Rick Mayfield, an economic development consultant, and three other friends, Erik, Spencer and Ted Sandstrom, will accompany Rindlisbacher on another summer kick-off mad dash around the state. They plan to visit some of the state’s areas of extreme contrasts during a two-day drive up and down the state. They leave Salt Lake City Friday morning, May 28, in a Thrifty Car Rental van and a tank of gas supplied by Tesoro, and head north after a breakfast at the Grand America Hotel, Utah’s 5-star luxury hotel. Some of the extreme Utah locations they plan to visit include the state’s coldest recorded temperature at Peter Sink in Logan Canyon and the warmest recorded temperature, St. George. They will stop at the trailhead to the oldest living thing in Utah – Jardine Juniper tree, also in Logan Canyon - and visit the state’s youngest person at a newborn hospital unit. They’ll contrast the old and new forms of transportation and communication when they visit Camp Floyd Stagecoach Inn on the Pony Express Trail in Fairfield, UT with GPS guidance and cellular telephones. And they’ll drive through Utah’s driest area, the western border town of Callao with the lowest recorded amount of precipitation ever in a single year, .71 inches in 1952-53, after visiting Little Cottonwood Canyon, site of Utah’s highest recorded precipitation, 98.3 inches in 1983-84. The travelers will overnight in Cedar City, home of Utah’s only Tony Award-winning regional theater, the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Saturday they will spend time in the St. George area visiting dinosaur tracks and the Tuacahn Amphitheatre before heading up the state’s steepest paved road, State Road 143 from Parowan to Brian Head and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Other famous Utah locations the septuplet drivers will visit include Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home in Circleville, Big Rock Candy Mountain, and Utah’s Heritage Highway 89 and the Boulder Mountain Loop through Garfield and Sanpete Counties. Some of the gourmet stops along the way will be at local diners, such as Mom’s Café in Salina and Top City Café in Delta. Alan Rindlisbacher, organizer of the road trip, says he was first inspired to visit Utah this way in 1996 during the state’s Centennial Celebration when he participated in the Utah Travel Council’s Centennial Passport program. “Last year was a learning experience,” he says, “where we saw some beautiful scenery and splendor, and enjoyed the company of five unique individuals who contributed to the fun of a great experience. I didn’t think I’d ever do it again,” he said, “but we had such a good time we decided to visit these extreme areas of contrast in the state.” Rindlisbacher says he’s already making plans for next year’s Memorial Day weekend road trip. The trip this year will take two full days with an overnight stop rather than the non-stop 24-hour drive of last year. Spence Kinard of the Utah Travel Council says that even with increased gasoline prices this year, this is still a fun, economical way for Utahns to vacation. “You can enjoy some of the world’s most spectacular and unusual scenery and sites right here at home,” says Kinard. “Utah is a world-class destination and a wonderful place to vacation,” he said. Rindlisbacher is the director of marketing for Layton Construction Company. Prior to that, he worked for the Utah Division of Business Development helping promote Utah’s economy. Support for his summer-kickoff trip comes from Thrifty Car Rental, Tesoro Oil Company and Layton Construction Company. On Friday, the group leaves from the Tesoro Gas Station on Beck Street in Salt Lake City about 7:15 a.m. and plans to return to Salt Lake City Saturday about 7:30 p.m. The contrasting and extreme locations the group plans to visit are: CONTRASTS Breakfast at Utah’s Five Star Hotel (Grand America) vs. small, local diners Great Salt Lake shoreline vs. Lake Bonneville shoreline (Davis County) Utah’s coldest recorded temperature (Peter Sinks) vs. hottest temp (St.George) Utah’s oldest national park – Zion NP Utah’s oldest living thing (Jardine Juniper) vs. newest living thing (newborn baby) Old farm ways (America West Heritage Center) vs. new farm ways (USU labs) Utah’s highest recorded precipitation (Little Cottonwood Canyon) vs. lowest recorded precipitation (Callao) Old overland transportation (stagecoach) vs. modern transportation (SUV) Old communication (Pony Express) vs. modern communication (cell phones)
EXTREMES One of Utah’s oldest restaurants (Blue Bird Restaurant, Logan) Best collection of dinosaur tracks (St. George) Utah’s steepest grade paved road (SR 143, Parowan to Brian Head) Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home—Utah’s most infamous cowboy outlaw (Circleville) Famous folksong mountain (Big Rock Candy Mountain, Marysvale) Utah’s most spectacular outdoor theater setting (Tuacahn Amphitheatre) Utah’s only city to be listed on National Historic Register (Spring City) Utah’s only Heritage Highway Corridor and only All American Road (US 89 & SR12) Utah’s largest landslide and flood area (Thistle) Utah’s famous homemade pies (Mom’s Café, Salina and Arshell’s Café, Beaver) # # #
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