Trip Report 6/29/20 - Whirlwind trip to Utah
Jul 5, 2020 16:50:28 GMT -5
megalotis, quartz, and 14 more like this
Post by Tommy on Jul 5, 2020 16:50:28 GMT -5
My wife and I took what turned into a drivecation to Utah this last week. It started as a mission to drive our daughter to Salt Lake City and spend a few days rockhounding, potentially with RTH friends in the Cedar City area but morphed into mostly long driving every day and precious little time for fun (one day).
We originally floated this trip out there as a chance to have a get together with RTH Members in Cedar City, and we made hotel reservations in Cedar City early in the process, but as it got closer and closer it became obvious that it would not have been prudent to do so because of Covid flaring back up and a potential exposure in our family that we were made aware of. We were super nervous about staying in hotels but we were armed with disinfectant spray which we used liberally.
We left Monday morning, rented a U-haul trailer in Reno, packed up the daughter in Carson City, and made it to SLC Tuesday late afternoon.
The obligatory wild horses we see every time when leaving Sparks and civilization behind.
Being cheap I had insisted on a locally rented trailer - meaning we intended to return it to Reno - but by the time we got to SLC our 4-Runner was blowing coolant and on the verge of overheating. Not knowing what was wrong we were seriously considering canceling our Cedar City hotel reservation and limping in the direction of home. Wednesday morning we decided instead to pay the one-way rate U-haul demanded and dropped the trailer in SLC. At the same time, I discovered we had a broken radiator cap. The insides had literally fallen apart. Problems solved we headed south.
We broke up the southerly trip with a wonderful sit down lunch in a cute little town of Mona, where local children ride horses and bikes to the family owned burger/deli/smoothie establishment and don't have to worry about a thing. We then we turned off to go scout around for Picasso marble in the afternoon. Sadly the Picasso site was unrecognizably hard hit since we were there last a few years ago, but straying far off the beaten path yielded a few nice pieces of float.
Also found some copper mineral of very low quality. Still was fun finding it though and worth dragging home for a closer look.
Thursday we headed up the mountain and did a wonderful hike on the Ramparts trail at Cedar Breaks National Monument. The elevation and the steep return hike up hill the whole way, were a killer on our fatter than usual quarantine bodies. We were not even close to being acclimated to it but we did OK and proudly finished the 4-mile round trip hike.
The scenery from the trail is absolutely spectacular. It was hard not to stop every few minutes to take pictures and admire the views.
After our hike we decided to eat lunch and spend some time at an even higher elevation on Brian Head Peak, and to do a little bit of agate picking there.
The view of Cedar Breaks from the top of Brian Head peak.
That's about it... we basically had one day to really take our time and have fun with the hiking and rock picking. The Brian Head agate location had a surprising amount of agate just laying around but I was super selective about it and only brought home a handful of pieces that seemed like they might be worth a cut. I'm sure it's mostly garbage but we were SO exhausted at that point I just wanted to grab a couple of pieces to play with.
We headed home and made it time for a wonderful 4th of July afternoon with family over for dinner and many many beers lol.
Thanks fer lookin.
We originally floated this trip out there as a chance to have a get together with RTH Members in Cedar City, and we made hotel reservations in Cedar City early in the process, but as it got closer and closer it became obvious that it would not have been prudent to do so because of Covid flaring back up and a potential exposure in our family that we were made aware of. We were super nervous about staying in hotels but we were armed with disinfectant spray which we used liberally.
We left Monday morning, rented a U-haul trailer in Reno, packed up the daughter in Carson City, and made it to SLC Tuesday late afternoon.
The obligatory wild horses we see every time when leaving Sparks and civilization behind.
Being cheap I had insisted on a locally rented trailer - meaning we intended to return it to Reno - but by the time we got to SLC our 4-Runner was blowing coolant and on the verge of overheating. Not knowing what was wrong we were seriously considering canceling our Cedar City hotel reservation and limping in the direction of home. Wednesday morning we decided instead to pay the one-way rate U-haul demanded and dropped the trailer in SLC. At the same time, I discovered we had a broken radiator cap. The insides had literally fallen apart. Problems solved we headed south.
We broke up the southerly trip with a wonderful sit down lunch in a cute little town of Mona, where local children ride horses and bikes to the family owned burger/deli/smoothie establishment and don't have to worry about a thing. We then we turned off to go scout around for Picasso marble in the afternoon. Sadly the Picasso site was unrecognizably hard hit since we were there last a few years ago, but straying far off the beaten path yielded a few nice pieces of float.
Also found some copper mineral of very low quality. Still was fun finding it though and worth dragging home for a closer look.
Thursday we headed up the mountain and did a wonderful hike on the Ramparts trail at Cedar Breaks National Monument. The elevation and the steep return hike up hill the whole way, were a killer on our fatter than usual quarantine bodies. We were not even close to being acclimated to it but we did OK and proudly finished the 4-mile round trip hike.
The scenery from the trail is absolutely spectacular. It was hard not to stop every few minutes to take pictures and admire the views.
After our hike we decided to eat lunch and spend some time at an even higher elevation on Brian Head Peak, and to do a little bit of agate picking there.
The view of Cedar Breaks from the top of Brian Head peak.
That's about it... we basically had one day to really take our time and have fun with the hiking and rock picking. The Brian Head agate location had a surprising amount of agate just laying around but I was super selective about it and only brought home a handful of pieces that seemed like they might be worth a cut. I'm sure it's mostly garbage but we were SO exhausted at that point I just wanted to grab a couple of pieces to play with.
We headed home and made it time for a wonderful 4th of July afternoon with family over for dinner and many many beers lol.
Thanks fer lookin.