Sevier Plateau, Utah

We made the turn to Tom Best Spring at about 12:30. Ellen was tired of driving around but it probably took us another 30 or 40 minutes to find an old cowboy camp with a good view of Barnhurst Ridge. I set up the camper while Valerie made lunch. When Ellen went down for her nap, I wandered up the hill behind camp to a little sub-ridge. The Sanford Fire had burned the hillside about seven or eight years ago and the disturbance had stimulated an old aspen clone. The young stems were thicker than the hair on a dog and were obviously providing fodder for the local elk. The best way through was to follow their trails. At the top was an old stand of Mountain Mahogany that had been thoroughly burned. Coming up through the blackened stems was a patch of elderberry. Standing there, I could see the Griffin Top, Escalante Summit, Barney Top, and the Table Cliff Plateau all the way to Powell Point. It was a horizon line that fit my eye like an old friend.

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