From our property
in the outskirts of Enterprise and entering the National Forest, Gum
Hill's peak is our destination. The first image has snow but we
usually don't hike up our home-made trail till it's melted |
Yes, snow does exist in Southern
UT. See this pdf of us being
snowbound
January of 2016; 28" here & lots more nearby (more than Cedar City & Salt
Lake city combined that are way north of us!) |
Us at our property in 2014 |
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Ancient kiln off the dirt road (left); up a little further about 1/2 mile
is an attempted man-made reservoir for cattle, now our peak is "hidden"
(right) |
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Facing what we just hiked and the start of the trail we made is behind me
(left); venturing on upward as the views get more spectacular of this basin
(right) |
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Taking a breather on the ridge. Depending on our energy level, R-T to here
& back is about 2 hours |
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Pretty desert flowers along the way to the peak |
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A longer rest with a snack on the peak. This complete hike is about
3 hours
R-T |
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Hiking an alternate route looping around the
peak |
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Below the peak, a view of Hwy 18 to the south |
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Interesting agate rocks along the way |
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Holt Canyon down the road from our
property, a great spot to hike and cool off in the summer (especially during
the week when no one else is around :)) |
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Eagles are seen in winter usually on the Bench Road east of
Enterprise |
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Our "barn" on the property |
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My solar tanning booth that works even in the winter! as long as the wind
isn't from the south or west (left); and finally our garden (right) |
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Snow-shoeing up to the trailhead (left); and obviously, the full moon
(right) |
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Farm friends |
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Open iron ore pit (how deep is it?) & iron ore mine off of Hwy 56 (left);
sunset in Enterprise (right) |
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"Lone" Table
Butte centered in the basin north of Enterprise (per Google Earth in the
Beryl-Newcastle area) |
Image taken from Hwy 56 near Enterprise in
winter (obviously) |
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Hiking up and around the butte |
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Driving away from Table Butte |
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Historical Page Ranch's pond & tree house on Pinto Road
on our scenic route to the challenging Stoddard Mountain |
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Interesting sandstone formation, sort of like a turtle head with its mouth
open (or an alien?) |
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This was by far the worst hike I let my husband take me on but he had a goal
to do it. Constant scratching & whipping of high brush--I was not a happy
camper |
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This was the most fun part of the
hike, crawling on all fours up the scree, quite steep I might add. Needless
to say we did not descend this way |
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Views from the top, or rather as close to the highest point the rugged
rocks & brush allowed us to go. See the columnars, Newcastle Reservoir
below and Cedar City beyond |
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View from Hwy 56 showing the scree in snow |
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Mount Elenore
is west of Modena and a few miles east of the Nevada border. These are some
interesting specimens found along the dirt road that leads up to the base of
the mountain. It is obvious that ancient Native Americans have worked on the
obsidian shards in this area |
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This is a bit steep and lots of loose rock |
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Zooming in on the cargo train passing through
Modena, heading to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City. In the past as a
passenger train, Modena was the northern end of the line |
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Just below our high point destination is an alcove of obsidian in the
volcanic rock |
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Interesting little "cave" |
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Larger amounts of obsidian |
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Beyond this high point (about 2/3 up and very satisfying) is an extremely
rough, rugged hike to the summit |
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Cricket Mountains
off of Hwy 257 west of Fillmore, Jim tries to explain the geology to me as
we looped up & around a couple peaks |
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North Wah Wah Mountains,
west of Milford and north of Hwy 21 (Ely Highway).
The image below is our favorite and framed at home :) |
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Colorful finds, especially the quartz |
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Looking up at the rugged high point, and
viewing west through the basin to the Mountain Home range east of Nevada |
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Flowers & butterfly along the highway at the Wah Wah Mountain range,
West Central Utah (see more spring
for other flowers) |
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Hiking along Minersville Lake from
Minersville State Park campground in Milford |
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Boy scout project for the birds |
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Another hike across Highway 21 from the
campground. Check out
the size of that anchor chain! |
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Views from the hike:
Frisco Mountains (left);
Beaver Mountains (right) |
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Now on solar in our Q-hut made to our home,
we started with the wind generator (more of this story below) |
Wind Generator Build |
Jim designed & built this green house but painted brown (das gloom
haus) |
Green House (Brown
House) Build |
When the start of building the wind generator, I thought the
mound was on an ancient burial ground. For 3 nights I could not sleep from
seeing ghosts, but friendly, One was a short Mexican, another an Indian, and I
soon discovered looking closely that the one with a Clint Eastwood hat was
black. Jim walked right through him going to the bathroom. He just thinks I'm
crazy but I know what I saw. A lumber jack, a hiker with a back pack who I asked
if he died in a hiking accident and he nodded yes. They only nodded yes or no,
never spoke. Then there were 2 teenage girls sitting on my counter bopping to
the music I began hearing from our garage. Thought it was our neighbor while
working on his bike but he said no, never played it that loud at 4am. When the 2
little ghosts came into bed with us there was a ghost cat, beautiful white &
fluffy but when I tried to pet it my hand went threw it, I woke Jim to try
because he didn't believe me but his hand went through it also, still a non
believer, I saw some weird figures on our fridge, then in my office on a folder
but got upset when I saw them on a paper in my purse. When I turned on a light
they disappeared. The little boy in bed with us was the only one who answered
without a nod when I asked what that was, and he replied to me "mathematics" so
I really think they were alien ghosts. I was upset at finding these in my purse
and saw a teenage girl ghost reflected in my bathroom window and said "BOO" go
haunt someone else and they were gone so I finally got my sleep! Think I'm nuts?