Tour 3.1 Grand EXTENDED Tour

sharon monument

Extended” GRAND TOUR

Sharon to Palmyra to Kirtland

with

Missouri to Nauvoo to Winter Quarters

 

 

Days

13 days, 12 nights.  Enjoy our Grand Tour with a little “twist”–we have added visiting Sharon VT and Niagara Falls USA (no passport required!).

Begin this fantastic tour by visiting Joseph Smith’s birthplace at Sharon, Vermont and surrounding towns with Smith family connections then continue to upstate NY  traveling through the “Cradle of the Restoration” sites from Colesville & Harmony to Palmyra & Fayette.  Continue to Mendon then stopping at Niagara Falls USA enroute to Kirtland & Hiram – then fly to Kansas City for Independence, Richmond, Liberty, Far West, Adam-ondi-Ahman, Quincy, Nauvoo, Carthage, and follow Brigham Young’s Iowa Trail to Winter Quarters.  Essentially, this tour adds Sharon to the combined Tours I and II for a fantastic 13-day adventure.
This tour adds another option to a great line-up of inspiring Church History tours–and even returns to SLC in time for you to enjoy a full day on your own in Salt Lake (or simply to return home) before October General Conference begins!

Food

Deluxe continental breakfasts at motels, tasty lunches (some meals served at sites such as Adam-ondi-Ahman), and wonderful catered meals or buffets for dinners.  Great food is plentiful and so have been the compliments on past tours!

Temples

Endowment, sealing, or initiatory sessions at the new Nauvoo Temple.  Nauvoo rents ordinance clothing.  Baptisms for the dead possible; a few Melchizedek priesthood brethren from the tour likely required to assist in order to do baptisms.

Visit Palmyra Temple grounds and gather for professional group photo (small, optional expense).  Tour the historic and incredible Kirtland Temple and grounds.  Stop by the new Kansas City temple for a quick photo op.  Also visit the beautiful Winter Quarters Temple grounds adjacent to the Pioneer Cemetery and Trail Center.  There is not time to do a session without missing too many important sites and we fly home that evening.

Special features

New England sites of the early years of Joseph Sr and Lucy Mack Smith including the birth place of Joseph Smith, Jr at Sharon, Vermont.  Niagara Falls USA visit including thrilling Maid of the Mist boat ride up to the Falls–Your shoes will get wet, but a raincoat is provided!  Two inspiring presentations by Karl R. Anderson (author, patriarch, wonderful person!) about early Kirtland and the building of the Kirtland Temple and the glorious events that took place therein.  Private tour of the Kirtland Temple!

Inspiring lecture about the Lincoln-Douglas debate at the monument in Washington Park where it took place in Quincy, Illinois.  Optional endowment or baptism session in the new Nauvoo Temple!  Wagon ride at Mt. Pisgah on actual wagon trails used by the pioneers.

Each day starts with a hymn and a prayer and ends the same way.  Presentations on the bus while traveling between the sites are inspiring and informative and are given by expert hosts who love to share this history and do so in a most inspiring way.  As much as practical, sites are visited in historical order to make this complex history easier to understand and remember.

At the sites listed below, carefully-prepared vignettes and historical accounts are given of the faith promoting events that took place.  At some of the sites, tour members are invited to read scriptures and words of those who were there during this crucial history.

Sharon, South Royalton, Tunbridge VT

See the site where Joseph Smith Jr was born to a loving family in a small log cabin–marvel at the noble obelisk monument created and installed for the anniversary of his 100th birthday.  See sites in South Royalton and Tunbridge where Joseph Sr and Lucy Mack Smith toiled to make their way as a young couple and hear of the events that drove this family, and many other families, west to new frontier land in New York.

Colesville & South Bainbridge NY

Visit inside the privately-held and carefully restored homes of Joseph & Emma’s friends Joseph Knight Sr (also was the home of the “Colesville Branch”)and Josiah Stowell.  See site where Emma and Joseph eloped to be married by Squire Tarbell.  Travel along the beautiful Susquehanna River to a proposed site where the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood likely took place.

Harmony PA

Home of Emma’s family.  Book of Mormon translated here except for a few pages.  Susquehanna River and the restoration of the Priesthood.  Temple-like atmosphere at the Susquehanna River.  Tour the newly-rebuilt homes of Joseph & Emma and her parents Isaac & Elizabeth Hale along with a beautiful visitor’s center (new renovations completed and dedicated just one year before your visit!).  Visit the graves of Emma’s first child, Alvin, and her parents Isaac & Elizabeth.

Palmyra NY

Smith family farm and log home where Moroni’s visits took place.  Sacred Grove (including private meditation time), Hill Cumorah, Grandin Press, Martin Harris Farm, Palmyra Cemetery, group photo at the Palmyra Temple.  This is an absolutely unforgettable day!

Fayette NY

Peter Whitmer Farm where the Church was first organized.  Book of Mormon completed here.  Site of the visions to the three witnesses.  Many D&C sections received here.  The chapel & visitor’s center were remodeled in 2014 and the Whitmer log cabin is a thrill to visit as you imagine the grand events that took place here!

Mendon NY

Brigham Young, his father, and all ten living brothers and sisters joined the Church here in 1833. So did their spouses. All went through immense hardships as a result yet none ever apostatized.  Heber C. Kimball joined, too.  Heber’s father is buried here, as is Brigham Young’s first wife, Miriam Works Young.  This is a wonderful, wonderful stop. Twelve miles from Palmyra.

Niagara Falls USA

Rest stop en route to Kirtland for a thrilling Maid of the Mist boat ride and time to marvel at the majestic waterfalls–the beauties of creation are on full display!  (No passport required for US citizens.)

Kirtland OH

Did you know the Saints lived in Kirtland longer than they lived in Nauvoo?  It’s true.  By far, more heavenly manifestations, visitations, and revelations were received in Kirtland than any other Church history site.  Feel the Spirit in the Newell K. Whitney Store (School of the Prophets; Word of Wisdom received here with several other D&C sections).  Also spectacular Kirtland Visitors Center (built in 2005), the newly-restored John Johnson Inn, saw mill, ashery, and family history facilities.  Visit the Isaac Morley Farm where the united order was first practiced and where a schoolhouse was the scene of heavenly direction.  Enjoy a private tour of the Kirtland Temple and marvel at this still-dedicated House of the Lord.

Hiram OH

John Johnson Farm. Joseph Smith lived here for a year while producing the “Inspired Translation” of the Bible. He was also viciously tarred and feathered here. Many sections of the D&C received including the great 76th three degrees of glory.  Great lunch at a darling Amish restaurant at a nearby village.

(Fly from Cleveland to Kansas City – saves two days over traveling by bus! and keeps our visits in historical order)

Independence MO

Location of the Garden of Eden.  Center of the future City of Zion (millennial world capital).  Lost ten tribes to gather there and build “The New Jerusalem.”  The Great Temple of Zion to be built at its center in which Christ will appear before the Second Coming.

Richmond MO

Monument to Alexander Doniphan, one of the greatest Americans in history (saved the life of Joseph Smith).  Experience the Rebuking of the Guards narration of Parley P. Pratt near where he, Joseph Smith, and several other leaders of the Church were held as prisoners in chains.  Also visit: the grave of Oliver Cowdery – hear his testimony in first person; the grave of Judge Austin King, and the grave of David Whitmer to hear his testimony in first person.

Liberty MO

See Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith and others were held captive for five wintry months.  Inspiring visitor’s center with wonderful presentations by full-time missionaries.

Far West MO

Last gathering place for the saints before the Missouri expulsion.  Dedicated temple site.  We hear from:  Emma Smith, Mary Fielding, Haun’s Mill eyewitness, miracle of the departure of the Twelve on missions to England from the south-east cornerstone of the temple lot prophesied in D&C 118.

Adam-ondi-Ahman MO

Adam dwelt here after expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  Three years before his death, he blessed his posterity and prophesied important future events of this earth.  A great meeting will take place here before the Second Coming, attended by millions from both worlds.  Every prophet who ever held keys will report his stewardship to Adam and return keys to him.  The Lord will then appear and Satan will be stripped of his power.  Finally, Adam will deliver the keys to Jesus Christ in preparation for His thousand-year reign.

Quincy IL

Town that rescued 5,000 Mormon refugees when driven from Missouri in the winter of 1839.  It is a beautiful, small city that has been richly blessed and protected ever since.  Also enjoy a visit to a Lincoln-Douglas debate site visit with an expert on Abraham Lincoln.

Warsaw IL

Town (what’s left of it) that raised the mob that killed Joseph Smith.  See stark contrast with Quincy.

Nauvoo IL

Fabulous, new Nauvoo Temple!  Attend an optional temple session or do baptisms for the dead.  Tour many wonderfully restored homes and shops with senior missionaries as they teach about pioneer life and the inspiring people who lived in these many homes and shops.  Delightful Pioneer entertainment.  Private, after-hours Red Brick Store presentation in the sacred upper room where the temple endowment was first given and the Relief Society was organized.

Carthage IL

Visit Carthage Jail and visitor’s center with the missionaries as they tell of the events of the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph and his faithful brother, Hyrum.  Always a very emotional experience.

Garden Grove IA

Major pioneer exodus camp half-way across Iowa.  Great food.  Friendly people.

Mt Pisgah IA

Wagon ride on the actual trails of the pioneer wagons at the Mt. Pisgah monument.  It was the largest temporary settlement on the long trek west.  It enabled the poorer saints to pause for a year or so to raise crops for “a year’s supply of food” before proceeding 1200 miles to the Salt Lake Valley.

Winter Quarters NE & Council Bluffs IA

Largest of the pioneer settlement areas on the Mormon Trail.  Visit the re-built cottonwood-log Kanesville Tabernacle where Brigham Young was sustained as the next Prophet and President of the Church in December of 1847.  Outstanding visitor’s center and cemetery at Winter Quarters  where the pioneers camped in sod huts, dug-out caves, and crude cabins that awful winter of 1846-47 before embarking for the Salt Lake Valley.

SUMMARY:

Fly to Manchester NH to join us for this extraordinary EXTENDED GRAND TOUR and experience, in a most memorable way, where Joseph Smith was born, where the First Vision took place, where the Book of Mormon came forth, where many of our early prophets began their ministry, and where the Church began.  We’ll then fly to Kansas City to begin the second portion of the tour visiting and learning about the historic and prophetic sites of Independence, Liberty, Far West, and Adam-ondi-Ahman.  We will travel to wonderfully restored sites in Nauvoo and Carthage and follow the Mormon trail across Iowa to Winter Quarters Nebraska – tour flies home from Omaha.  THIRTEEN days of incredible sites, an uplifting temple session, and inspiring presentations–all in one EXTENDED Grand Tour.

This is truly a superior tour at a modest price – actually a fantastic price!

Price each by number of persons per motel room: INCLUDING SLC airfare!**

Tour NumberDates, Number of DaysPrice if 1 per roomPrice each if 2 per roomPrice each if 3 per roomPrice each if 4 per roomComments, Host
GX01September 17-29, 2016
13 days, 12 nights
$3295$2880$2630$2550Sharon VT to Palmyra-Kirtland with Missouri-Nauvoo-Winter Quarters! Niagara Falls USA visit & boat ride.
Nauvoo Temple session.
Hosted by veteran tour guides: Lyle Mumford and Mark Mumford

 Register for EXTENDED Grand Tour

Prices listed include everything! See [2] below.

No surprise add-ons!

All group flights are priced from SLC.  Other departure cities by special arrangement–please call for details.  (Once group seats are ticketed, price subject to current market airfare prices for like or similar flights; call for details inside of 45 days before departure.)

Host names are those currently scheduled and most likely to serve.  We reserve the right to make changes, if necessary.

[1] Your reservation is secured with a $100 deposit per seat on a first-come first-served basis.  The balance is due 45 days prior to departure.  Mail checks to Mormon Heritage – 2367 W Goldenpointe Way – West Jordan, UT 84088.  Be sure to indicate the tour ID number or departure date and for whom you are paying.

Credit cards taken by phone, call for details: 801-272-5601 or toll-free 866-335-5601.

If you have to cancel, there are two possibilities:  If someone takes your place you get a full refund less any costs we incur to procure your replacement.  If you provide a replacement, or if there is a waiting list, you would lose at most the air ticket name change fee charged by some airlines.  If nobody takes your place, your payments are refunded less all non-refundable expenses we have incurred in your behalf.

[2] Advertised prices include: taxes, fees, all meals (except airports), nice lodging, deluxe charter bus, tickets to scheduled events, guide services, and roundtrip SLC airfare (3 flight segments; other departure cities by arrangement).  Bus driver tip is encouraged.  (Once group seats are ticketed, price subject to current market airfare prices for like or similar flights; call for details inside of 45 days before departure.)

No surprise add-ons!

**Generous credit if you don’t need our air transportation (i.e., using miles, airline benefits).  If not flying with the group, it is your responsibility to notify MHA upon signup and coordinate your schedule with the group schedule.  Please call for details 801-272-5601, 866-335-5601.

Current passport or passport card NOT required as this tour visits the beautiful Niagara Falls from the New York side.

Register for the Extended Grand Tour