Exploring St. George & Santa Clara

We spent 3 days in the St. George UT area, specifically at Snow Canyon State Park with friends Jon & Sherry. And as it is with most Jon & Sherry visits, geocaching was at the top of the list. We learned about the pioneer history of Santa Clara and St. George through an Adventure Lab and its 5 locations.

exploring the home/museum

closed because of covid

two story home built in 1862-63

I caught a road runner on the property

a stop at another historic home of pioneer settlers to the area

signs of all the families who inhabited the home

3 roof lines tell the story of 3 additions

Sarah, wife and mother 

'The Volunteer" statue and display at City Hall

reminding the community of the 2005 Santa Clara flood

a beautiful winter home for Brigham Young

first tabernacle in St. George

Erastus Fairbanks Snow

founder of St. George

renovations on the St. George Temple

***Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.***

Utah Road Trip

 WiFi will be non-existent for the next week, so I am posting a couple of our excursions while we still have service.

We had 5 counties we wanted to find geocaches in during our Utah visit of several days. These photos are of a one day road trip, about 325 miles through the 4 counties.

We stayed in Cedar City while the cold front moved into the state. The area avoided measurable snowfall, but did not avoid the extreme temps. The truck showed 17º when we left at 8 AM, but as we climbed in elevation, this was the lowest temp. (Temps did improve to 'normal' in 48 hours.)

Hwy. 14 was narrow, icy in spots, winding, and surprising had more traffic than I would have expected for about a 2000' elevation gain. Pretty scenery though.

a change in the terrain

And again, an unexpected historical find. I convinced Hubby to stop so I could take photos. There was a puzzle geocache at the homestead, so he solved a puzzle and I was happy to wander around with my camera.

house and barn and other visitors

his home at age 14 to 18

some of the info signage

some info on Butch Cassidy & this site

a two room house that would have had a loft or upstairs

the kitchen area

dresser in the bedroom area

the barn

small pens either side of the door with a divider separating the back half

we did score the cache find

this gal did not move as we drove by on the way to a 

one 'unknown grave' cemetery

snow on the mountains in the distance, farther north

some colorful leaves on the trees

a pasture with sheep

and a resting black llama keeping watch

(llamas are very good guard animals)

I also saw a corral with some horses and a camel. Yes, a camel. A dromedary. This certainly isn't typical camel habitat. We thought the reason for the camel might be for Christmas pageants??? And of course, there is no photo, because by when my eyes and brain made the connection, we were well passed the unusual sight. He didn't think it was worthy of slamming on the brakes or turning around.

We drove through a number of small villages. This one room school is no longer used, but is well preserved. A larger neighboring community appeared to have a school with boarding facilities, maybe a high school only? We weren't certain. We saw unused school buildings in most of the villages.

Traveling Through Utah

 We moved from the eastern central border of Utah to the western southern area. Arches National Park is on the east and Zion National Park in in the opposite side. Between the two are some amazing red mountain land forms, more national parks, national monuments, and state parks...all worthy of a visit. We have been to most of them, so skipped them this trip because of the forecasted weather...and time.

Church Rock

along Hwy. 191south of Moab and Arches National Park

a photo stop because of geocaching

another geocaching stop

I was bummed because it just was not feasible to drive into Arches National Park while towing the travel trailer.

but this took care of the need to see Utah arches

again, a geocaching stop

and a photographer's dream

the gray skies didn't matter, because the scenery was so picturesque

AND very few people! Two other cars had pulled off and by the time we got out of the truck they were leaving. The only remaining person was this guy who planned to do some rock climbing.

A little farther north on Hwy. 191, south of Moab, another unusual stop. Again, there was no way we would have stopped if not for geocaching. I had never heard of Hole in the Rock.

hard to miss when driving by

a few visitors that morning

Sherry & Jon: doesn't this remind you of the geocache themed donut we bought on the Donut Geo Trail???

The place was full of interesting kitschy things. The metal sculptures appealed to me.

I have no idea what the balls are made of

I just liked the saguaro

one more sculpture 

'Alot of Bull'

we did not

but we did score the geocache and many photos

one of three entrances to the 5000' home

Then we had the one hour trip through the town of Moab. It is hunting season in Utah. If as our last October visit, schools are off during this time, so families travel one last time. And then the number of tourists...we found license plates from at least 20 other states as we moved, one vehicle at a time through a a traffic light, and there were many traffic lights. The town was unbelievably busy for a Sunday morning.

an unusual colored mountain side along Hwy. 191

on the hillside of Green River

the winter weather arrived before we got to our destination

we arrived safely and got set up and settled for a two night stay

Traveling Through Colorado

The original plan was to spend 6 nights in Colorado, but the possibility of snow storms brought about Plan B. (2 nights at Lamar, 2 nights at Alamosa, and 2 nights at Montrose) We skipped the 2 nights at Montrose and boogied to Utah, in what we hoped would be ahead of the freezing rain, snow and below freezing temps.

So this post is a summary of some of what we saw in southern Colorado while driving to out of the way places to find a geocache in a new county.

this is the CO county map prior to our trip

These photos are most likely not in order of our traveling days, but they will give an idea of the variety in flora and fauna, as well as our geocache finds.

interesting cemetery family plot

including a mural painted brick wall

not a bad view for a final resting place

again, one of those places we found not knowing its significance

June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983

Jack Dempsey

"William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey, nicknamed Kid Blackie, and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926.~ Wikipedia"

our view one morning at we headed north into the mountains

gray skies, but beautiful fall colors

mountain peaks above the low lying clouds (fog)

a bison 

A sign several miles down the road advertised meat for sale: beef, elk, rabbit, bison, deer, etc. Buses and RVs welcome. Oh, and jerky for sale. We passed.

a marker honoring The Old Spanish Trail

and the first settlement in western San Luis Valley 

a water tank along the train tracks for filling 

the ol' steam locomotives (South Fork CO)

a passenger train car, also in South Fork

windshield view on the way up to Wolf Pass

no photos on the way down

Chimney Rock on our way to the UT border

a small herd of 5 deer on the sidewalk of one of the 

communities we drove through

they even posed for the photo

We had hoped to get those nine counties in the southwest area, but alas, the weather...I guess we will just have to come back another time...Thirteen new counties on this trip. Not bad for 5 days and about 1000 miles.

We are now in Utah. Winter has come to the area, but it will be a passing through in a day. We can deal with cold. We left SD so we would not have to deal with snow!