Adventures Galore

Libby wrote last week and wondered if we were beginning to count down the days left on our mission. The answer for me is "No". I am trying not to think about having to return home in just a short time. But we do feel the pressure of running out of time to do all of the things that we want to do. Because of that we seemed to cram as much as possible into the week as we possibly could.


On Tuesday we had one of the best adventures that we have had all summer.  Stephen asked Elder Finlinson (a retired Institute instructor, that lives in Fillmore and serves two days a week at Cove Fort with his wife) if he would be our guide to some of the hard-to-find spots in Millard County.  He agreed to do that so the Taylors, Lows, and us met him in Meadow for an exciting afternoon and evening.

Our first stop was to the Lava Tubes. We were able to actually walk through the tubes which meandered all over the open fields. We even walked in one side of the tube and walked out on the other side of the road. I think Stephen was rather surprised to see me surface from a completely different area than I went in. The tubes are a popular camping spot for the Boy Scouts.

From there we drove a little further south until we came to the crater of T. Compared to the cinder cone that we climbed a few weeks ago over near Cove Fort, this one was huge. We climbed up as high as we could go, but it was so windy I wasn't eager to stay there for very long. The road out to the crater was VERY rough.  I loved Elder Finlinson's description of it when he said that it was "so rough that it would shake the rivets out of your Levis."  It is very fun to listen to him talk and share stories about the area.

Then it was on to the Devil's Kitchen. We got out and climbed in "the kitchen" for awhile -- finding routes from the bottom to the top. I can see how kids in Millard County could be easily entertained by all these areas.  There was also the Devil's Bathroom and Devil's Bedroom where some geocaches were hidden but we were running out of time so we will have to save those for another time.

One of the main destinations that we'd wanted to see was the famous "Lace Curtains". They are on the backside of one of the extinct volcanoes. From a distance they don't look all that impressive, but when we got closer they were worth the trip. They look a little like melted wax that has dripped down the side of the mountain.  Very unique.

From here we had choices -- Elder Finlinson was ready to take us anywhere we wanted to go.  He offered Fort Deseret, Old Stoneface, Clear Lake Springs, or the hieroglyphs in Fillmore Canyon.  The group voted for the hieroglyphs.  They were supposedly written/drawn by Moroni when he was searching for gold to make into plates.  The spot is up a very steep road and really only accessible with 4 wheel-drive vehicles or on foot.  The forest service has put up a couple of plaques giving a little history about the hieroglyphs and some of the people involved with them.  As Elder Finlinson said, he will wait until National Geographic or the Smithsonian discover them and determine what they really are. He said he was not going to be taken in by anything like Mark Hofman's Salamander Letter from the 1980's. The sun was setting as we drove out off the mountain and night was on us as we arrived home to our trailer park.

We were up bright and early on Wednesday morning as we were picked up at 7:00 by the Christensens for the drive down to Zion National Park.  There were four couples -- the C's, the Taylors, the Ences, and us who went for the adventure. The Ences introduced all of us to the thrill of riding the park shuttle up to the end of the line with our bicycles hooked on the front.  From the furthest point, we rode back to the visitors' center. The best part was it was mainly downhill. We did the run twice before it was time for us to leave and head home. I'm hoping that we will have the opportunity to do this again sometime in the future. It was nice being able to be closer to nature and be able to go at your own pace.

Our group split up and we drove home with the Christensens who wanted to go up to Cedar Breaks National Monument which is to the east of Cedar City.  It is at 10,350 foot elevation so Stephen had not been too eager to drive up there with the Prius plus the fact that some people had described it as a smaller version of Bryce Canyon. It has a beauty of its own.  It has the colored stone of Bryce but the area is deeper and does not allow one to walk through it as we did in Bryce.  Elder C was describing all of these great hikes in the area which I would love to take, but will probably have to wait to do until Cory's boys are old enough to go with us. The aspen trees were beginning to change colors so that was an extra bonus.

Friday we had organized an early morning hike to "The Ruins". There is a small pile of rocks that sit on a volcanic shelf not too far from I-15 which one of the locals mentioned was where an archaeological group from BYU came down and excavated. That morning there were eleven of us that showed up for the hike (one of our oldest missionaries, Elder Burr was there as well as Sis. Stees who can barely walk but rode up the hillside with her husband on an ATV). The ruins really weren't ruins, but it gave us a destination for our adventure. It was so good being out in the early morning with a group of friends who were just interested in having a good time.

Only in a small town in Utah

Yesterday we went in early and got off early so that we could go to the Circle 4 Farms community picnic. I thought that we were going to see real pigs, but I still enjoyed their exhibits. We sat and ate our pork chop dinner while we listened to Muddy Boots, a band from the area that we heard earlier this summer.  When it was over we drove further north to visit the town of Milford which was the home of the Union Pacific RR. I wanted to go to Frisco, a ghost town off to the east, but I knew that Stephen wanted to be back in time to see the BYU vs. University of Utah game that was showing at the directors' house.  The kick off wasn't until 8:15 so it was after 11:30 by the time we got home.  I like him to go watch the game so that I have time to work on the internet in the back room.

Stephen spent some time this week in the shop helping make the spinner toys for next year.  It is like a little toy workshop in there. I even went over to help for a little bit which was fun -- felt a little like Tim the Toolman Taylor.

This morning Stephen and I both had to speak at Sacrament Meeting.  He has spent a month preparing for this talk.  He did a great job covering the subject of the Holy Ghost.  I had been asked to speak on baptism which I thought was a little hard to talk about to a group of missionaries. I liked being able to throw in some Cove Fort references during the talk -- if I gave that talk at home no one would get what I was talking about. It was great to have it over with.

I also put together another Shutterfly book -- this time about the grandkids. Stephen's children book about the fort came in on Wednesday and by Thursday I was making edits and placing an order for 16 more for the other couples here at the fort (free shipping and 50% off).

Well, it is time to put an end to this.  I hope your week was as much fun as ours and that things are going well for you.