For Chris’ birthday weekend he just wanted to camp somewhere and take it easy. Normally I meticulously plan each of our trips, but this time he opted to camp at our usual spot below Park’s Pasture on the east side of Boulder Mountain and just play it by ear each day. I took two days off work and drove down solo on Thursday afternoon. As I was waiting at the stop sign to turn onto Highway 24, Chris passed in front of me on his way from Salt Lake, and we pulled into the gas station in Torrey together. With him was his fiancee Dollie and his brother Bracken who’d flown in from Oregon for the trip. After fueling up we drove to our camp spot and set up. Then, since it was early enough and we were fairly close, we drove down the road to Pleasant Creek near Tantalus Flats to search for some rumored rock art that we had already looked for the year prior. We didn’t find much there, but it was a nice place to kill a bit of time.
Crossing Pleasant Creek
Large overhang
Broken metate
Faded pictographs and a 1930 inscription
Ira Behunin, January 1, 1851 and Albert Noyes, April 7, 1847
That evening at camp Chris’ friend KP and her dog Tallahassee joined us and we all kicked back and got to know each other better. We were in no hurry to leave camp on Friday. When we finally got moving we decided to drive the Hell’s Backbone loop, and we crammed five people and a dog into my Jeep for the trip. We stopped at the Hell’s Backbone bridge, then again at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp where there wasn’t much left to see.
Mount Ellen
View near Hell’s Backbone
Hell’s Backbone bridge
Older bridge under the new bridge
View west from Hell’s Backbone bridge
Hell’s Backbone
Tallahassee hogging the armrest
CCC camp FS-18
CCC camp FS-18
Next, on the way into Escalante, we decided to stop at the Box for a short hike up Pine Creek. It turned out to be very short, only about a mile round trip, because the sand was too hot for Tallahassee to walk in. It was 102 degrees in town and we stopped for some ice cream and snacks before heading back to camp. That evening at camp while almost everyone else was taking naps, I went for a hike and Tallahassee followed me. Despite not even knowing me, he stuck by my side and kept me company, which was nice because I always miss my dogs when I’m camping without them.
Closed road to the Box
The Box
The Box
102 degrees in Escalante
View from below camp
Out for a walk with Tallahassee
On Saturday we hiked to Deer Creek Lake. We once again piled into my Jeep since it was the only vehicle we had capable of making the drive to the trailhead. It was an easy four-mile hike without much elevation gain and it was pretty unremarkable.
Deer Creek Lake trail
Great Western Trail sign being swallowed by an aspen tree
Bart Sucks ’94
Deer Creek Lake
Outhouse along an abandoned trail segment
1923 aspen carving
Next we drove to Boulder so I could top off my fuel, and on the way back to camp we took a detour to Boulder Creek just below the confluence of the west and east forks. The USGS topo map shows some “ruins” (likely an old cabin) there that I wanted to see. We didn’t find anything where the topo showed a structure, but we did find a collapsed wooden structure 0.2 miles farther downstream from there. There were also two dam-like structures across the creek, about a quarter-mile apart, but I couldn’t figure out what they actually were. After researching it later I found that they’re fish migration barriers, designed to keep non-native fish from traveling upstream and out-competing native fish.
Collapsed structure along Boulder Creek
Fish migration barrier on Boulder Creek
We spent a couple of hours at camp before driving down to Lower Bowns Reservoir to cool off. We parked near some large cottonwoods and spent a couple of hours relaxing in the shade or wading in the water. The sky had been growing hazy all day due to wildfire smoke, and when we returned to camp the view toward Boulder Mountain was entirely obscured.
Chilling at Lower Bowns
Chris in the water
Dipping my toes
Dollie and Bracken relaxing in the shade
Hazy view from camp
On Sunday we all just packed up camp and headed home. It was unusual spending so much time at camp but I really enjoyed the relaxed pace of this trip.
Photo Gallery: Birthday Around the Boulder