Traci was a little indecisive about her plans for Sunday, so I didn’t make any plans myself. When we woke up the morning of Father’s Day, she informed me that we could do whatever I wanted. It was too late to make any serious plans, so we just went for a drive in the truck. There were some geocaches up Consumers Road that I hadn’t found, so I decided to head that way, then over the mountains to the Scofield area. The caches along Consumers Road were nothing special, and we found them all quickly. Consumers Road officially ends at a coal mine at the bottom of the Wasatch Plateau, and from that point on the road is called the Beaver Creek road. It is very steep, and winds up the mountains until it reaches the top, then it descends into Pleasant Valley near Skyline Mine. It’s a county road, but with private property on both sides, so there’s not a lot to do in that area.
Once we reached the bottom of the road in Pleasant Valley, there was a stopped train blocking the railroad crossing near where the dirt road meets up with the highway. We’d brought lunch, so we found a spot near the railroad crossing to eat. There was a stream nearby, and shade from some pine trees–it was a very nice lunch spot. When we were finished with lunch, we drove back to the railroad crossing and debated whether we should wait for the train to leave, or just go home the way we’d come. While we were trying to decide, another truck came down the road and turned up a narrow road that paralleled the railroad tracks. I hadn’t noticed the road before, but we began following it and found that it led to the end of the tracks and back to the highway.
I hadn’t made plans beyond reaching the highway near Scofield, but since we still had plenty of time left in the day, I decided to press on up Eccles Canyon, then to the dirt road to Monument Peak. Our first geocaching trip as a family was to Monument Peak seven years ago, when Bradley was just a baby. Not much had changed–it was still cold and windy up there. 🙂 We found two geocaches there, and I appreciated the view much more than the last time I was there. I was able to recognize a lot of mountain peaks on the horizon, which I didn’t have the knowledge to do before. When we were done there, we drove back to Scofield and found a few more geocaches, then took US-6 back home. For not having planned anything in advance, it was a good day.