Road Trip - Day One

Ellie and I just had what I consider to be a fantastic mini-vacation. It probably wouldn't be her first choice, but she is a good sport and went along, and In fact I think she actually enjoyed most of it. She said that next year she gets to choose and we will be going to BYU Education Week. I guess we'll see how good a sport I am.

I am a peak-bagger. For those of you that don't know what that is, it is a person that likes to see how many mountain peaks they can hike. I enjoy hiking, it is a great motivator to stay in shape. I do not do technical climbing. I don't take ropes, pitons or caribeaneers. Most peaks in Utah don't require technical climbing. I set a goal in 2003 to hike the highest point in every county in Utah and now have twenty done, with six to go. If you are really astute you will say, "Hey dummy! Utah has 29 counties" and you would be right. However there are only 26 high points because some of them are right on the county line and are the highpoint for two counties. If you are interested in this challenge you might want to check my web page at http://www.vernile.com/Hiking/Hiking.htm.

Anyhow, I wanted to bag a couple of peaks and talked Ellie into going with me. We left early Thursday morning (8/28) and headed north. We drove up I-15 to the Buckhorn Flat, then took highway 20 across Bear Valley to highway 89. From there we went north through Circleville, and a few miles further north took highway 62 to Koosharem. We took the Brown's Lane cut-off to highway 24 and on into Loa. After consulting with a friendly employee in the Forest Service office we continued out South Main onto a dirt road which leads to the Aquarius Plateau in the Boulder Mountains. The drive into the mountains was through semi-arid low land which changed to pinion pine and juniper, then to quaking aspen and pine. A little over an hour on the dirt road and we were parked about a quarter mile from Blue Bell Knoll, the highest point in Wayne County.

The short hike to the top of Blue Bell was easy, though your lungs could tell you were at 11,000 plus feet in elevation. At the high point we found a rock pile and a container with a log book. All the higher peaks have this. We spent a little time looking through the logs and taking pictures, then headed back to the car. On the way back down the mountain we stropped in a shady place and made sandwiches from our cooler.

We took a slightly different route when we hit the flat land and ended up catching highway 24 just east of Bicknell. We backtracked just to take a look at the town that is the home of Wayne High School, then turned around and headed east again. We passed through the beautiful little town of Torrey, gateway to Capitol Reef National Park, and then on to the park itself. We stopped at some of the points of interest, took photos and reminisced about a family vacation there many years ago.

Back on highway 24 we continued east through the park, through the town of Caneville and on to Hanksville, where we had reservations at the Whispering Sands Motel. Before checking in we stopped at the local BLM office and got a map and some local tips for our trip through the Henry Mountains on day two. They have a very interesting waterwheel and mill that they have moved out of the mountains and re-assembled behind the BLM office. It is worth looking at.

We checked into the motel and rested a while, then went to dinner at a local restaurant. It wasn't much to write about except that they had a dinner special for $6.99, which we tried and it was okay. Probably great for the price. Later at the motel we met up with John Spevak, my sister Claudine's husband, who is working near there and staying at the same motel, and had a good visit.