Field Trip Fun - Bingham Canyon Mine

For this week's field trip,we met up with Janell again.  We had free tickets to get into the Bingham Canyon Mine, (which I always call Kennecott, but I guess the official name of the mine is the Bingham Canyon Mine), so we decided to check it out.

Instead of trying out a place to eat, we decided to go to a park and have a picnic and let the kids play.  There is a park up the street from my house, and not too far from the mine, so we decided to meet there
 
Just our luck, right as we were walking into the park, 2 school busses full of kids pull up.  So we definitely didn't have the park to ourselves, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all!!


So, we've been striking out on the places that we've been to eat on our field trips, so go figure that the first good meal that we had on a field trip is one that we brought from home!!  Abbi, Easton and I enjoyed BLT Chicken Ranch Wraps, applesauce and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Well, at least I enjoyed it. I think the kids were more interested in just playing.  (and eating cookies.  Oh well...)

Once another school bus pulled up with another load of kids, we decided it was time to head to the mine.  We piled into our cars and drove down to the mine.  You have to check in at a gate, and then drive up the mountain.  It's kind of crazy to see just how much they do there, and how huge the place really is.


Once you get to the visitor's section, there is a museum that you can go through.  It's pretty small, but full of all kinds of things.
 
I was actually surprised to see how interested the kids were - we spent quite a bit of time in there!


Then we headed outside where you can stand and look over at the mine where they are working.  Pictures seriously don't do this justice with how big it really is.  It's amazing that they've done all of this in a mountain!


I guess these trucks are as big as a 2 story house.  I wish we could have seen one of them up close!!


We spent a little bit of time outside looking at the mine and the old mining equipment.  And of course checking out the big tire!!
 
After, we went in to see the gift shop, and the kids had fun looking at the rocks, stuffed animals, and everything else they had.  Then Janell followed us home so she could see where we live, and the kids had fun playing in Abbi's (very messy) room while Janell and I chatted.  It was a fun field trip day!!