Spring Break 2016

We left Wednesday March 29 for Topaz Mountain. It was FREEZING. We had snow and hail pellets falling form the sky at times. Oh, How grateful I am for a furnace that kept me toasty. I found that I couldn't leave the comfort of the Wilderness. We purchased a generator and were so tickled with it on this trip. It was our first time to cheat and watch movies and use the microwave. We were blessed to be able to pull little frosty bodies into the trailer and  warm them up with hot chocolate and warm air.
We found a new fun collecting area for topaz. We even found quite a few tiny garnets lying about. All of these trips to Topaz Mountain and we are still discovering things. We went to Garnet Cove and found it to be a fun place also.

A little vehicle trouble. Frozen park brake. Always at the same service station in Eureka.

Warming up in the trailer

Playing with the fox.

First thing they do is scamper up the mountain.

Easy riders

Love those 'go-goes'.

Haystacks around the fire.

All you need is a good fire to have fun. 

Rainbow magic before another cold storm hit.

So much treasure in a magical place.

Wonderful Whitney

On August 11-15 of 2015, we enjoyed another attempt at watching shooting stars. We saw a few, but the clouds soon stole our show away. My favorite part of the star show was holding Colton and showing him how to watch for the beautiful streaks of light. It was great. We had such gourmet food. Salads and croissants, fruits, coconut shrimp and double french toast. We had grilled ham and cheese with garden fresh tomatoes....nothing can compare. We saw amazing wild life. We looked and looked for our friend moose, but never quite saw one. We did watch some beaver drag aspen branches to their lodge.We saw amazing birds and forest rabbits. We saw deer. We loved being together. We were joined by the Goudy family and some friends of theirs. It was a great trip!

Checking out where the wild critters play

This guy was hilarious. He loved getting his photo taken.

Even a rain storm has blessings

One of the doe we saw.

Sand hill Cranes. We heard them coming in so we got a shot. Amazing!

Music makers

Super stars

Giving brother a ride.

Hiking with Popie

Yes, it was great!

Ditto!

Glowing Scorpions

   I have been so neglectful of my writing this past year. I do have the 'excuse' that I have been taking some time off to mourn and heal from a few losses, but now I need to get caught up. We are leaving tomorrow for Spring Break camping and here I haven't recorded last years trip. It was a bittersweet one. Our last fling with Carter before he left to serve a mission for our Father in Heaven.
    We went to Topaz Mountain and camped at our new favorite spot there. We followed the road around the theater of Topaz mountain until it was no longer paved. We like to set up camp along the rocky hills. The grandchildren love it. They climb and lay claim to all the miniature 'caves' above the camp. It is awesome to look up at their flashlight adorned scenes after dusk.
   The first night, Carter went out with his black light and brought in a container of baby scorpions. They are so awesome looking in the black light. He also showed me how to wear this piece of fabric around my head. I can't remember what it is called. Carter was also injured by flying rock in his eye. I was a little worried that it would delay his departure for his mission but by the time this happened, our resident nurse had arrived. Stephanie and her girls came out the second day. The third morning we awoke to snow! It kind of dampened our trip and our spirits. We came home to get ready for our awesome egg hunt a bit early. It's been almost a year since Carter left, but I still feel heart tugs. He is becoming a fantastic man.

The Great Moose Pond

We enjoyed a few days in the Uintas near Whitney Reservoir. This has been a favorite camping place
for our family for years. We want to share our adventure. This camping spot was 125 miles from home.
    We headed out Wednesday afternoon. We choose to travel through Weber Canyon and on to Evanston Wyoming. From there we traveled back into Utah and into the National Forest. We paid the required permit fees at the Ranger Station just inside the boundaries of the forest. There is a sign for the Whitney Lake turn off. This quickly turns into a dirt road. At approximately 4.5 mile, we turned south onto another dirt road. We believe this road will take you on a loop back to the main road, but we stayed here. We had a lovely camping spot in the trees. Walking about a half mile south of our campsite is a large beaver pond. It has two lodges on the edge. The stream is lined with willows and this in moose country. After setting up camp, we took our darling granddaughters on a walk. As we walked over a slight hill and the pond came into view, there are the far end of the pond was a large bull moose just heading into the willows for dinner. We took pictures and showed him respect.
   The wild life was wonderful. We awoke the next morning to a couple of deer right across the road from us. There was chipmunks and squirrels. There were birds- hawks, woodpeckers and one yet to be identified bird in addition to all the common birds. The meadows were covered in wildflowers. The purples and yellows were stunning.

The Unidentified bird

   We had so much fun with our grandchildren that were able to be there. We sang songs, played games, had secret hideouts, made Boondoggle and ate fantastic meals. It was the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower so we saw a few shooting stars.
  Our notes to ourselves. If we come up on opening of the bow hunt again....leave on Friday! It was like the rat race finding us! While we loved our campsite, it was on the main road. We discovered a better site on a turnoff just east of our camping spot. We hope to be there next time.

He looks tiny, but he wasn't!

The Hiking girls

Superman looks super in the mountains

Taking a break

One of the hideouts now adorned with rocks

Cards in the trailer

Popie put up the 'banana'

Some swingers

The Ipad helps girls feel sleepy

Fire Fun

Even babies liked the fire

Bonding time

Making a rainbow

Playing hide and seek

 A big moose print

A Different Direction

   For at least 9 months, I have looked forward to spending a week in the Uintahs at Whitney Lake. This was to be the week. Alas! It rained and rained and in the mountains it snowed and snowed. We knew that it wasn't wise to continue with our plans. Plan B. West Desert camping. Desert camping isn't my favorite, but we headed there anyway. We camped at Look Out Pass.
 Here are the directions: Get yourself to Tooele. We don't care how...except be prepared for camping. Head south out of town on the main drag. Travel through Stockton and further south approximately 20 miles to the Look Out Pass cutoff. there is a sign, but it was close to 20 miles and is a right turn. Travel on this road for 9 miles. It turns to dirt road after about 1 mile. There are massive sites for dispersed camping all through the area. We turned into the place labeled. Pet Cemetery. (Yes, it was creepy to me, but the cemetery had been in the path of a fire and we camped away from it. Creeepy!) 
  There were lots of trails for OHV to enjoy. We tried our bikes. I am recovering from a knee injury so it was a short ride.
  We enjoyed Lime Soft Chicken Tacos cooked in the Wilderness! Ha-ha. Dad had noticed a Sago Lily and we went in search of a good photo. Found some beautiful specimens. We enjoyed a great nights sleep and made plans for our day. We decided to take a 30 round trip to get Vernon Wonder stone. It was beautiful. Superman was questioning if we should share site directions. If you want them, contact me or purchase a good rock hounding book. We were collecting for some landscaping projects. It took us two hours to collect what we wanted. We tried excavating our own. It was enjoyable but after a while the rain cleaned specimens look so gorgeous, we just started to pick it up off the ground. 

Sago Lily- The State Flower for Utah. Pioneers ate the bulbs of this plant during a winter of starvation.

We were camped along the Pony Express Trail. 

Superman looks Wonder-ful

Which one would you pick up?

The Booty. I am planning a water feature.

It looked pretty. Only spent 5 minutes in it!

Making Munstrella Chicken

I was taking a picture of the thistle and the butterfly flew right in ...I guest you could call this a butterfly photo bomb.

The blooming Prickly Pear. We hiked down a wash to get pictures of the one Superman had found. It was pretty but had only a few blooms. This one was right be where we parked. We saw it on the way back!

Who said the desert isn't a beautiful place. 

   We had chicken salad lettuce wraps for lunch. Delicious! I spent the afternoon reading. (Love the books in the Wilderness. Borrow if you would like.) Superman spent the afternoon exploring. He took his bike but spent a lot of time hiking. He found a beautiful Prickly Pear in bloom and shared the information with me. We decided that we needed a photo. We had seen the desert in bloom before and drove toward Simpson Springs where we had seen the display before. Disappointing! Those cacti were past their bloom. (A little like me! ) But we saw so many antelope. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting an antelope. (Always wanted to use that phrase) . We got lots of photos and came to the conclusion that antelope are weird looking creatures. They have moosy faces.

Antelope- Now where is that dead cat?

   Back home we made a fire to cook Dutch Oven. When we arrived home, there was a small dove on our awning. We watched it for a while and went about our business. This dove was joined by another and they were quite enamoured of our truck and trailer. They were very friendly even perching on our bike handle bars while we were feet away. As we cooked our dinner, they got even friendlier. They were walking around our feet! We could have easily picked them up. I wonder now if we should have tried and scared them so they would avoid humans. (Hunters)  It was fun.

Superman's best friend...the dove.

   Our Dutch Oven was called Munstrella Chicken. It was great. Here is the recipe:

Chicken Breasts
Beaten Eggs
Bread Crumbs (I salt and peppered them)
Fresh sliced mushrooms
Grated Mozzarella
Grated ( I had to use slices cut in strips) Munster cheese
Chicken broth
  Dip the breasts in eggs and roll in crumbs. Brown in butter in skillet. Transfer to Dutch Oven. Put mushrooms and cheeses on top. Pour on broth (it called for a cup) Bake in coals (8 -10 if using charcoal) 45-60 minutes until golden brown. It was great!
 Superman's favorite part of the trip; Getting Wonder stone and spending time together away from the rat race.
Johnnie's favorite part of the trip: Getting Wonder stone and taking pictures of nature