Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple

The Temple

The Winter Quarters Temple was my 43rd temple. This is inside the Visitor's Center

My kids heading into the Winter Quarters Temple

My 43rd Temple, December 2021

It was getting dark when we arrived at the Winter Quarters Temple. We went inside the Visitor's Center to change into our church clothes.

December 2021

My daughter Rebecca at the temple

I have been wanting to go to the Winter Quarters Temple for years! Finally, I decided that I should just plan the road trip and go for it! We went over Christmas Break in 2021 because that's the easiest time for James to miss work. It is a 12 hour direct trip, which we would add detours to, and going in December meant snow and cold! But it was well worth it to attend this beautiful temple! It is located in Omaha, Nebraska at 8283 N. 34th St. It was dedicated in 2001. We arrived at the temple at dusk, and headed into the Visitor's Center to explore and change our clothes before our baptism appointment. Our travelers included me and my husband James, my son James, my daughters Lizzie and Rebecca, and Rebecca's boyfriend Isaac. James, James, and Isaac baptized us for family names. The baptistry is absolutely beautiful! Since it was dark, we didn't get to see the exterior very well, and since we did baptisms we didn't get to see other areas of the interior. We enjoyed the Visitor's Center also. After years of waiting, the trip was worth it!

The Trip

We left on the day after Christmas right after church and drove across Wyoming. I wanted to go to Devil's Tower on the way. The snow was coming down hard, and we had a hard time on the slippery roads in the dark. We made it to Devil's Tower, but we couldn't see it very well through the snow and darkness. We attempted a couple of pictures, but we were all so freezing cold that we quickly retreated to the car and continued on our trip. We stayed that night in Rapid City, South Dakota.

We stayed in Rapid City at the Residence Inn by Marriott, which has a really fun water slide. The next morning the kids had fun playing on the water slide before we headed for Mount Rushmore. I've been to Mount Rushmore a few times, but never when it was that cold! We were all freezing! We walked around a bit and took some photos. The little half-mile trail that would have gotten us closer to the presidents was closed due to winter. After hanging out for a little while at Mount Rushmore, we decided to go find some tunnels that James had found out about from a friend, where we could see Mount Rushmore framed inside them. We drove Iron Mountain Road, but unfortunately we started from the wrong end, so snow stopped us before we reached any of the tunnels. So we drove back to Mount Rushmore and started on the other end of Iron Mountain Road. We saw two tunnels, but the snow stopped us from going any further. We drove up the curly-cue roads (or pigtails), which were fun, and we went through the Doane Robinson Tunnel. We got out of the car to take photos of Mount Rushmore through the tunnel. This tunnel has the best views of Mount Rushmore through it. We also drove through the CC Gideon Tunnel, but we couldn't make it to the Scovel Johnson Tunnel -- we'll have to go back in the summer and drive the whole Iron Mountain Road! Driving through the tunnels and seeing Mount Rushmore through them was more fun for me than being at Mount Rushmore! That was definitely a highlight! When our kids were young, we went to Rapid City and visited Mount Rushmore, walked the little hike there, and even watched the evening program. We also visited Bear Country, Reptile Gardens, Crazy Horse Memorial, and toured Jewel Cave. We couldn't feasibly do any of those activities with it being the middle of winter, so our main source of entertainment was Mount Rushmore, the tunnels we could get to, and the water park at our hotel. That night we played at the water park in our hotel some more.

The next morning we started the trip to Winter Quarters. It was a 7 1/2 hour drive, and when we got there it was nearly dark. We ate dinner and headed to the temple. We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Omaha. The next day we drove the entire trip home, about 13 hours with the snowy weather. That was a long day! If I were to go back again, I would schedule more daytime hours in Omaha so that I could see more sites there and see more of the Winter Quarter's Mormon Trail Center. Still, the trip was a lot of fun and we made happy memories!

phone booth in the Old Market History District of Omaha by Spaghetti Works where we ate dinner

a replica of the Salt Lake Temple in the Winter Quarters Visitors Center

the lazy river at our Marriott hotel in Rapid City

water park in our hotel

the funnel in our hotel water park

view of Mount Rushmore through the Doane Robinson Tunnel along the Iron Mountain Road

Representing presidents in stone

the water park at the hotel

Lizzie heading through the Doane Robinson Tunnel

Mount Rushmore

Lizzie and James and the presidents

grainy photo of Devil's Tower in the dark and snow

our attempt at a picture of Devil's Tower in the dark and freezing cold, December 2021

Cedar City Utah Temple

The Temple

My 44th Temple

For our 27th wedding anniversary in 2022 we traveled to Cedar City Utah to attend my 44th Temple. It is located at 280 S Cove Dr. in Cedar City. It was dedicated in 2017, so is relatively new. It reminded me a little bit of the Star Valley Temple. I expected the weather to be warmer in Cedar City, but I guess we would have traveled an additional hour to St. George for the warmer weather in January. We did an endowment session at the temple.

The Trip

We were in Cedar City for two nights, so we had time to do a little exploring in the area. I did some research to find an arch in the area, and even though there was snow, we went to find it. It's called Mitchell Arch and it's in Parowan Utah. It took us a long time to find it -- we ended up hiking in circles through deep snow -- and then when we did find it, we walked only a mile back to our car. :) If we ever went back, I'm sure we could find the arch much more quickly. It was a fun adventure though.

pretty view at one point of our hike, searching for Mitchell Arch

the backside of Mitchell Arch

a little cave I found while we were exploring

underneath Mitchell Arch

Mitchell Arch

James on top of a smaller arch near Mitchell Arch

Pocatello Idaho Temple

The Temple

Pocatello Idaho Temple

My 45th Temple

We decided to take a Valentine's Day trip to the Pocatello Temple in 2022. We drove there and back on a Saturday. We had a 2 o'clock initiatory session. The temple is large and beautiful. It was dedicated in November of 2021, so when we visited it was a very new temple. It is located at 3100 Butte St in Pocatello.

The Trip

Since we drove out and back in one day, we didn't have a lot of time to explore Pocatello very much, but we did stop on the way home in Soda Springs to see the geyser that is set to go off every hour on the hour. It blows 70 feet in the air and is worth the visit if you happen to be in the area of Caribou County Idaho. It was discovered in 1937 by mistake and it is now the world's only capped geyser - being controlled with a timer at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, who said that it was throwing Old Faithful off schedule. With its current schedule it doesn't throw off the world famous Old Faithful, and it's actually pretty nice as a tourist to be able to know when to expect the geyser to erupt. We waited for the eruption and were standing close enough that we got wet. We walked around a little bit, although the outer edges of the geyser did have snow on it. Closer in was too warm so the snow melted. We would have stopped at Lava Hot Springs also, but it looked really crowded and there was no where to park, so we just kept driving.

Geyser Park at Soda Springs

February 2022

April 2024

Our Trek Family at the Pocatello Temple in April 2024

We took our Trek family on a trip to the Pocatello Temple, and in addition to visiting the geyser again in Soda Springs, we also went to Lava Hot Springs and went swimming. That was also a lot of fun!