30th May 2025

Today has been a driving day. We left Salt Lake City for the 4.30 hour journey to Capitol Reef Resort.

However, we were sat eating breakfast this morning when I saw an advertisement on the television that said “Harry Potter The Exhibition” now in Salt Lake City!!! What?! 😱I dropped my spoon on to the table and gasped! This was all news to me. Apparently, it opened on 24th May. 🤷‍♀️

Well, what’s a girl to do when she’s a huge Harry Potter fan? Well go to the exhibition that’s what. Luckily, it happened to be on the very road we would be travelling out of Salt Lake City, so even more reason to go.

When we arrived it wasn’t busy as it’s still school time here. There was much confusion when buying the tickets as everyone serving was new and the technology had not bedded in properly, so we had to wait quite a while to get in.

It’s a fairly small exhibition compared to the one at Leavesden Studios where they actually filmed the series but it was well worth a visit. Quite a lot of interaction and a lot of the original props from the films. Enough to keep any Harry Potter fan happy.

There were also exhibits from the Fantastic Beasts series.

Here are a few pics from the Exhibition.

Sand at the entrance

A first edition of HP and the Philosopher’s Stone or Sorcerer’s Stone

Si repotting a Mandrake

Sand in the Ministry of Magic phone box

Si in Hagrid’s chair

Sand in Dolores Umbridge’s office

Sand and Si in Harry’s cupboard under the stairs

Si scoring a Quidditch goal!

Sand and Si disappearing into a suitcase!

The final battle!

Of course there was the obligatory gift shop and even though my cupboards are fairly full of memorabilia, I still managed to find a few things I don’t have and of course, needed badly! Plus of course, the ‘official’ photographs that we bought but will put in a cupboard and never look at again!

Our journey to Capitol Reef Resort was uneventful and the temperature along the way climbed to 90ºF (32ºC), so very hot indeed. 🌞

On the Road

Arriving at Capitol Reef Resort

We have a lovely room at the Resort, overlooking the red cliffs and have settled in nicely. Tonight for dinner we will eat on site at the Pioneer Kitchen and venture further afield tomorrow evening.

Pioneer Kitchen

The view from our room.

Sand on the balcony

You may think our first adventure tomorrow would be a hike but oh no, tomorrow morning the Barretts will be riding like John Wayne!! It’s been quite a while since we sat atop horses 🐎so hard hats have been requested and fingers crossed, we will complete the two-hour ride with no mishaps! 🤞🤕

Please join us tomorrow to see how we fair!