Midway, Utah

Valerie entered the Midway Art Association's Wasatch Plein Air Paradise competition this year(http://www.midwayartassociation.org/). She used the camper for lodging and we parked it at the Wasatch Mountain State Park. Ellen and I delivered her there (and picked her up). We also spent Saturday, the 27th, hanging around Midway. My, how it has grown. It was busy, busy, and busy. Of course, then we went over to Heber City and discovered what busy really looks like. Valerie said that it reminded her of Moab. I started drawing for her the nostagic picture I had in my head of Heber circa 1989. Back then, I said, you could get a haircut and a bad cup of coffee right on Main Street for about $4.50 total . . . and you could do it without being run over by a yuppie. (I sure am turning into a grumpy old man.)

Cedar Breaks, Utah

Operation Baba was in Utah this week. Unfortunately, I was working a lot, so we didn't spend much time in the mountains. Finally, on Saturday, we made a run to Brian Head and Cedar Breaks. The road to Brian Head, however, was still blocked by snow and, even with the Chev, I wasn't going to try it. So, after dodging the flip-flop wearers strewn around on the road who seemed to be surprised to find that the Utah mountains were not the right place for beach-wear (does the whole fat world wear shorts and sandals everywhere they go?), we did the short tour of Cedar Breaks. It snowed hard the whole time, but it was beautiful and Baba enjoyed it. After that, we went down through Cedar Canyon and stopped a couple of times in the vicinity of Moots Hollow to look around. I think that is a spectacular part of the canyon and would like to explore it more but, of course, Highway 14 is like the Daytona 500—it is dangerous to even take your foot off the floorboard for fear of being run over from behind. Finally, we finished our tour in Cedar City where everyone in the truck got a prize at the Thrift Store for a grand total of $2.75.

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.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/SevierPlateau#

Little Creek, Utah

Not many posts in this blog during May. I guess we've been too busy at The Homestead. Actually, we've spent a fair number of days poking around in the local canyons—First and Second Left Hand near Parowan, and Red Creek and Little Creek near Paragonah. Yesterday, Ellen and I went up Little Creek and tried to circumnavigate Iron Peak. The road was pretty rough and it was slow going. The Chev didn't much like it and Ellen was tired of sitting there. So we turned back and found a place where we could skitter down to the creek. We also found a Pituophis catenifer deserticola, a Great Basin Gopher Snake.

Henderson Hill, Utah

We drove up Second Left Hand Canyon pretty early this morning. When we had a view of Noah's Ark, we dropped Valerie off to do some painting. Then we went up the road to the end. At least, we went as far as the snow would let us, which was probably a couple of miles. We got stuck only once and I was able to dig out in a few minutes. (Last time it took at least a half hour and then a guy came by in his F-250 and hooked a chain to the Chev.) We got out of the truck and scrambled up the back side of Henderson Hill until we were on a ridge with scattered hoodoos. It was sort of like Cedar Breaks or even Bryce Canyon. The sun was warm and we could hear the creek during the climb. It was a nice break after a cold week.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/HendersonHillUT#

St. George, Utah

Valerie showed at the St. George Art Festival last Friday and Saturday. It wasn't necessarily a great show for her, but it was a break-even effort and she made some good contacts. The best painter at the festival was Arizona-based Charles Thomas. He is represented by a southern Arizona gallery (http://www.galleriatubac.com/artists/thomas/), but he shows in St. George each year. My favorite painting was entitled, "Escalante." Thomas had applied the paint with a palette knife so it was rough and blocky—a little abstract but with a real feel for the area, actually, around Cannonville.

Park City, Utah

It was time for my yearly ski vacation in Park City. So, I went up to Mark and Kristi's place on Friday afternoon and drank their beer and ate their food. It was a good start. On Saturday morning, Mark had to go blasting, so Jason made me breakfast while I spilled a gallon of coffee all over the kitchen. By the time I had that cleaned up, Cylvick was calling me every five minutes to say that he was waiting for me on Crescent. When I got there, we went straight to Jupe. By the time we caught up with Mark, we'd done a couple laps in Scotts, toured Pinecone Ridge, and latched on to Tall Paul. From there it was a hike to High West, a hike to the North Shoulder, and a couple of beers at the Summit House. After a pair of cruisers, we called it a day. Mark had to go to the patrol banquet, so Cylvick agreed to play host to the free-loader. By the time I got my crap off, he was already waiting for me in Wanship. We toured his office (http://www.ziprider.com/) and went home to see the family. We had a beer, a martini, and a bottle of wine while we excoriated capitalists of all stripes. After a good sleep, Sarah mixed some pancake batter and we drank a pot of coffee. It was time to take my memories of good food, great snow, and outstanding friends back to southern Utah.

Rock Springs, Utah

We had to go to Tropic to drop off a few pictures for the new gallery at Clarke's (http://www.thegalleryatclarkes.com/), so we continued on to Cannonville. At first we thought we'd camp at Kodachrome, but the campground had four or five parties in it. Ellen, a girl after my heart, said, "We don't want to camp here with all these people." No, we didn't. So we went down on the Monument and turned on the Rock Springs Bench Road. After a while we got into a little trouble with the truck and the trailer in a steep, muddy wash. We turned around and went back out to the corral. There we found a really nice little camp just off the road. We hiked, climbed the sandstone around camp, and went to bed when the sun set. It was a pleasant until about 5 am. At that point, I realized that it was cold—too cold for my sleeping bag. It started warming up again by about 9 am, but those hours between 5 and 9, whew, they were cold. After breakfast we drove down the creek a little way and looked around. It isn't too far down to the Paria, but I wasn't going to make it with a little girl. So, we went back, packed the camper, and drove home.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/RockSpringsBenchUtah#

Second Left Hand Canyon, Utah

It snowed a lot yesterday. But today was warm and sunny and I wanted to see if I could get up the canyon. I forded the creek and mucked my way through the melting snow and mud for about a mile. When I found a place to turn around, I left the truck and went on by foot. I got to a formation called Noah's Ark (look at the pictures to see if you think it looks like that, but don't expect to see any kangaroos). It was big, beautiful, and quiet--the way I like it. Plus, I needed some wood and I found some. Can anyone tell from the cone what it was? The correct answer wins first prize, but Lannom doesn't get to play.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/SecondLeftHandCanyonUtah#

Snowbasin, Utah

There was no way I was going to let Wally have Benson all to himself on Valentine's Day. So, I left Parowan at 6a on Friday and drove to Snowbasin. It was, once again, a case of letting my heart over-rule my better judgment. I soon discovered that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Benson rides like an expert; Wally skis like a bat-out-of-hell; and Jordan finally gave up on me and took some laps on his own. I guess the only good news was that we didn't hook up with the sixty-something Harley riders who, I am told, stopped only to share a flask while riding the 'dola. Fortunately, just when I thought my rubbery quads would finally desert me for good, Wally called last run.

The test of endurance wasn't over though. After gorging ourselves on moose tacos by Katie, we went for a tour of neighborhood homes. My bedtime came and went as we viewed fine art, drank red wine, and solved the world's problems. In addition to enjoying the good company, I also had the benefit of becoming so drowsy that I was able to fall asleep back at the bunkhouse with the Benson buzz-saw running at full throttle.

In the morning we drank a couple of pots of coffee and ate bagels while the snow piled up outside. By the time we got on the road, the 45 minute trip to the Salt Lake Airport had turned into 90 minutes of terror. So much for a leisurely morning. I barely slowed down to push Benson out the door at Terminal 1. If his flight was cancelled, so be it, I needed to save myself. Of course, this being the Wasatch front, once I got off the benches and south of town, it cleared up and I had unimpeded views of Sandy and Draper as I headed down the freeway. I made it back to Parowan before dinner; tired but thankful for a Benson/Wallace sponsored ski vacation.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/SnowbasinUT#