Owen's Loop Trail along the St. George Red Hill rim - Approx. 1.5 miles one-way, 3 miles round trip)I've hiked this trail (the Owen's Loop trail) a bunch of times this spring. It's close, right in town. I can drive up to the Brooks Nature Park at the top of Main Street (452 North Main, St. George, Utah), park, and head right up the trail.

Please forgive and ignore the obviously wrong GPS route data that caused the straight red lines on the left-hand side of the Google Earth route map screenshot.

This trail is also a fun one to do in the evening. I've watched several sunsets from atop the Red Hill. My most recent trip was on Friday, the 7th of May, 2010. I found the Grandpa's Toolbox geocache out at the end of the trail where it does a loop on the westernmost side of the Red Hill.

Hike Route in Google EarthThis evening I downloaded a bunch of old waypoints and tracks from my GPS and plotted them in Google Earth (using a Ruby script to covert the GPX data to KML). I found this route that Kendall and I hiked one eveing, on Tuesday, 16 March 2010. It was a BLAST!

I need to do that one again. It's especially nice in the evening. You arrive at the edge overlooking State Route 18 and Snow Canyon, a perfect place to watch the sun set over the sandstone crags of Snow Canyon State Park.

And traversing the rim of the southern Diamond Valley extinct volcano cinder cone is fun too.

I think Kendall said they used to refer to this (or a similar hike) at Red Mountain Spa as "Jones' Bones"--due to the, ahem, remains atop the hill. (Don't worry, they're just old, bleached animal bones someone found, collected, arranged in a display beside the trail to look a bit like human remains.)

Another Evening Hike in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve North of Washington, UtahSo Kendall and I went hiking again. This time we parked at the new Washington, Utah exit against the base of the red cliffs Interstate 15 passes by and started up the road, into the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve along the Grapevine Trail.

We followed the path (it was a dirt road) as it wound up the hill then headed northward beneath power lines that feed a well in the sandstone watershed foothills of Pine Valley Mountain.

About two-and-a-half miles up the road, the road ended (at the wellhead) as did the power lines, and before us, in a sandy bowl, was a big chunk of sandstone at the very bottom of the bowl, surrounded on the west by black basalt cliffs from an extinct volcanic vent (an old cone stood above the cliffs, likely the source of the ancient lava flow), and on the east by the sandstone foothills of Pine Valley Mountain.

Despite the path being a road instead of a hiking trail, it travels through beautiful desert terrain. The weather was cool, a storm mounting north of us atop Pine Valley Mountain, the sun sinking quickly in the west, the air pleasantly cool as the distant storm blew soft tendrils of breeze down from the mountain towards us.

And the sandstone playground at the end of the hike was well worth it! Grapevine Trail ends and Bracken's Loop Trail begins at the rock. I don't know what the rock's called, so I started calling it Bracken's Rock.

At the base of the rock, Grapevine Wash forks and winds around the rock base on either side, carving the sandstone, sculpting it as only nature can. Both Kendall and I had to scramble up the rock to the top, just to say that we did. I sat for a bit on the top, then stood, as the breeze picked up and began gusting from the north as the distant storm boiled and brewed above on the mountain slopes.

Before we left, Kendall and I had to test the acoustics by singing at the top of our lungs. Sure enough, the black basalt cliffs on one side and sandstone hills on the other provided perfect echo surfaces, singing right back at us.

We departed Bracken's Rock following the Bracken's Loop Trail northeastward along the base of the basalt-sprinkled hillside, then eastward, then up out of the wash bottom to the base of the sandstone cliffs there, then southward. Since we didn't have a map and weren't sure how long Bracken's Loop would be, and since it was getting dark quickly, the sun having set some time ago, we decided it was best to turn south, and followed a fork of the wash along the sandy bottom bottom, then linked up again with the original Grapevine Trail.

The hike back was enjoyable in the dark, the storm behind us on the mountain blowing cool, cool air against our backs, and the lights of Washington glimmering here and there before us.

We rounded the end of a hill and angled westward again, and suddenly, spread before us, below us, were all the lights of St. George and Washington, revealed in their glory. It was beautiful.

Thankfully, the lights of the communities reflected of the cloud cover to light our path, since no stars were visible, and the sliver of moon we'd seen earlier was now obscured by thickening cloud cover.

When we arrived back at the vehicle, my GPS claimed our adventures had taken us 6.28 miles. Not bad for me, considering that post-Sept. surgery I could barely walk a few city blocks (back in October).

Thanks again, Kendall, for some good, fun exercise in the beauty of Southwestern Utah's spectacular desert landscape.

P.S. Kendall, you'd better post some of your pictures.

Hike Route - 4.3 MilesKendall stopped by and grabbed me from work this afternoon before the sun went down so we could get out in the beautiful weather and light and go hiking. We wanted some place close by, so we chose the Chuckwalla, Turtle Wall and Beacon Hill trails (the three form a loop) in the lower Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

It was a beautiful late afternoon/early evening, the sun hitting the red cliffs at a lowering angle, the air crisp and cool. We parked at the Chuckwalla trailhead lot immediately off Utah State Route 18 just north of where it crosses Snow Canyon Parkway in St. George, and started down the trail, descending into the canyon past a cliff wall packed with people rock climbing. There was quite a crowd on the cliffs.

The trail was down hill for the first part, descending into the canyon carved by Halfway Wash. It was nice, as it got me limbered up, warming me up for the rest of the hike. The Chuckwalla trail descends to the Halfway Wash floodplain, then follows it northward.

After a while following the wash north, at a trail intersection, we turned westward, crossed Halfway Wash, and immediately started up the hillside, and were soon walking on slick rock, weaving along the base of the cliffs on the Turtle Wall Trail.

I've got to say, the Turtle Wall Trail in the evening light is stunning!

Just a hair past the two mile mark, we reached a look-out point overlooking the Entrada golf course, green fairways nestled in black basalt ancient lava beds far below us.

After a pause at the overlook, we headed northward, until we intersected the Beacon Hill Trail, where we turned eastward and churned through the sand, then descended back into Halfway Wash. As we descended again, the sun hit the sheer red rock cliff face in front of us on the western side of Halfway Wash, below State Route 18 (but you can't see it from the road). What a beautiful sight!

Once at the bottom of the wash again, we followed the trail southward, back to our point of origin. It was a hike made-in-the-shade (literally, as the sun was so low that by this time the canyon bottom was in shade).

The hike ascending back up the eastern side of the wash to the parking lot was the perfect end to the hike, even though by now my fingers were a bit chilly and I was ready to get in the vehicle and warm up a bit.

Thanks, Kendall, for stealing me away to get some exercise outside!

Kendall on the Trail Beneath a PineOverlooking Snow CanyonOn Saturday, 27 Feb. 2010, my brother Kendall and I decided to go hiking. It was a beautiful day--overcast with low clouds encroaching and enveloping the surrounding mountains, threatening to rain. When you live in red rock desert county, rainy days bring out the desert colors. Temperatures were in the forties (Fahrenheit), but with no wind, with a light jacket, that's perfect for hiking.

Kendall's Utah State Park pass was about to expire, so we decided to visit nearby Snow Canyon State Park. As we reached the intersection with State Route 18, we decided to turn north on 18 and enter the park at the north entrance just north of Winchester Hills.

Snow Canyon Hike RouteBefore we reached the entrance, however, we decided to continue past, up through Diamond Valley, and a tad beyond, to the Red Mountain Trail trailhead. I wanted to revisit a hike I'd made years ago to a virtual Geocache at the top of Snow Canyon, a hike Kendall had done many times as a guide working for Red Mountain Spa.

Just outside of Diamond Valley, as State Route 18 made a bend towards the north, aiming us almost directly at the cinder cone up ahead that stands above the community of Veyo, between Veyo and the even-closer Dammeron Valley, we stopped, leaving the road, turning left (west) onto a dirt road--well more of a dirt driveway and parking lot among the juniper and piñon pine trees beside State Route 18.

There we parked, amidst a herd of trucks attached to horse trailers. Apparently the equestrians were out in force this cloudy, cool day. And indeed they were! We saw riders galore as we embarked on the sand-and-rock Red Mountain Trail, beginning our slow ascent, twisting through the trees up the gentle hillside slope.

Having had significant surgery in September of 2009, returning to a semblance of normal life only by December, I certainly could feel my frailty as the trail wound ever higher up the hill, heading first southwestward, then nearer the ridge summit, turning south to follow the summit towards Snow Canyon. I was soon huffing and puffing, but grateful that I could do this hike.

Once we reached the top of the ridge, we paused and looked around a bit, sipping our water bottles. Pine Valley Mountain remained enshrouded in clouds, only the lower foothills, sprinkled with a light dusting of new snow, visible. Wisps of clouds trailed gently down the slopes, a warning to us that should the weather change, the sky could quickly lower and envelope us in mist, rain, or even snow. We resumed our hike southward, and remained dry for the time being--well, free of rain, though not completely dry, as hiking even with a light jacket in cool air had me sweating.

The recent-rain-moistened red sand of Southwestern Utah beneath our feet really made the brilliantly white, thin patches of melting snow that lurked atop the ridge wherever shade afforded protection from the sun's warmth stand out sharply in contrast. Wow! Beautiful!

Manzanita above Snow CanyonWe stopped several times the latter part of our hike out to the top of the canyon and snapped photos. It's always beautiful to see open white and red sand and also undisturbed cryptobiotic soil crusts, sandstone rocks, lichen-encrusted rocks, manzanita shrubs, their thick oval green leaves contrasting their smooth reddish bark, yucca, cacti, junipers, and significantly taller piñon pine trees--they seemed to grow better or at least taller at the somewhat higher altitude nearer our destination.

The last part of the trail, instead of a rough, broken-sandstone-rock old jeep trail, was a soft, sandy path, the sand growing deeper--making me even more grateful that it was wet which makes it firmer, and walking easier. Kendall, ahead of me, followed the trail around a bend, through a cut about his height in a sand dune. On the other side of that dune, in a few more steps, we caught sight of the sandstone hilltops that surround Snow Canyon. A few more steps, and suddenly, a giant gaping chasm opened beneath our feet, and sheer sandstone cliffs halted our forward progress.

We had arrived! Wow! What a view! Stretching before us, beneath us, were the several merging canyons in Snow Canyon State Park. White sandstone dominated to the left (east), red to the right (west), and in the misty distance, we could see parts of Santa Clara and parts of the Dixie Downs and Green Valley area of St. George. On the black lava basalt-edged bench to the right, perched Winchester Hills and The Ledges golf course. (Those who own homes there have a stunning view looking down into Snow Canyon from the western side.)

In the far, far distance, a thin horizontal line was visible, the Hurricane Cliffs, and perched atop, a flat, familiar pyrmidal shape was visible, Mount Trumbull in Arizona, close to the edge of the Grand Canyon. I could also make out the closer Seegmiller Mountain south of St. George. Mount Bangs and Black Rock (south and southwest of St. George) were too cloud-enshrouded, as were West Mountain, Scrub Peak and the rest of the hills and mountains I grew up calling Utah Hill (part of the Beaver Dam Mountains west of St. George).



Hike Destination at maps.google.com

We spent quite some time there at the rim of the canyon. When we finally gathered our things for the return journey, weather looking even more ominous, a few droplets of water warning us of what could be coming our way, it was hard to depart that stunning locale. Wow, wow, wow, wow, WOW! I was in natural beauty overload.

Despite the low clouds and what looked like fresh snow on the foothills of Pine Valley, it didn't actually rain on us until we were nearly back to our vehicle, and then it only sprinkled tiny droplets, almost a mist, so that we were barely wet when we did arrive.

Once back in my RAV4 (the RAV4's steering fixed under warranty the day before the warranty expired, thank goodness!), the rain picked up just a bit, though it never really rained hard at all. It was beautiful.

On our way back home, we did enter Snow Canyon State Park at the north entrance, and idled leisurely down the road, pausing so I could take a few more photos. What a beautiful place! I love it!

Snow Canyon Hike Route in 3-DThanks for the hike, Kendall! It was great to finally get back there.

All in all, having measured our route in Google Earth--check out the Google Earth screenshots of the route I've included with this post--we hiked only 4-and-a-half miles, two-and-a-quarter out, two-and-a-quarter back. For me, post surgery, that's doing well. I hope to be able to do longer hikes this spring and summer.

In case you wonder where exactly our hike terminated, check out the embedded Google Map with the green arrow (at least it SHOULD be green--it was in my web browser) right at the top of the canyons where we stopped.

What a blast!

Approximage Trail RouteCache Found: Cinder Cone Jar by Madness and Mayhem
Trave Bug Found: Hotspur the Dragon found by Percible (my brother)

Friday, 10 February 2006 - 6:45 PM MST (-0700)

It was late in the afternoon, and brother, whose geocaching.com handle is Percible, and I were both going a little crazy from being inside all day, staring a computer screens. He called me up and we made an agreement: He would grab his G.P.S. receiver then drive over from Hurricane to my house in St. George to pick me up. It was my job (And a tough one, I'm tellin' ya!) to pick a cache to go visit.

We didn't have much light left, as the winter sun was nearing the horizon already. By the time he arrived at my house and I was ready to go, it was well past 5:00 PM MST (-0700 GMT).

Anxious to go, I grabbed my stuff and was about to hurry out the door when I realized I'd not yet picked a cache and print out the description and coordinates. It was another 15 minutes, due both to the difficulty deciding which cache to visit and owing to some minor computer glitches that froze my web browser several times, before we had the coordinates to a cache atop a cinder cone near Diamond Valley and were away.

We drove northward out of...

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Fascinating Sky Over the Rio VirginCache Found: A Bridge Over Troubled Water by call2teachfamily

Saturday, 28 January 2006 - 5:00 PM MST (-0700)

Found at last!

Nests on the BridgeYou might not know it, but there's been an unregistered cache hidden only 50 feet away in the rocks by the trail since March of 2003 (Wednesday, 19 March 2003 at 3:45 PM MST (-0700) to be precise). I hid it when my sister from Colorado was visiting, then promptly forgot to register it with Geocaching.com. I even visited it again in the summer of 2003 (Saturday, 20 Sept. 2003 at 7:00 PM MDT (-0600), with a friend) with the intent to register it.

The Setting SunThat's what I get for not being diligent in registering it with www.geocaching.com. Besides, I love the name you picked for this cache, and I love the little bit of history of the Quail Creek Reservoir dike-break flood of 01 January 1989 washing out the bridge that you included in the cache, call2teachfamily!

Spiky SilhouetteI took a Dory toy (You know, Dory from "Finding Nemo") and left a "Polar Express" DVD in exchange.

Riverside Grass SilhouetteAnother SilhouetteAfter writing in the log book, I extracted the old 2003 cache from the nook in the rocks by the bike/walking trail. Apparently it didn't survive the January floods of 2005 unscathed. It was completely submerged by the flood. In spite of an otherwise weather-proof plastic jar container, the contents inside were still soaked, though the log book was only damp, having had an additional layer of protection in the form of a ziploc plastic bag.

It was surprising to see that lewmil, who registered a find of this cache on the 13th of December 2005, apparently stumbled across my old unregistered cache a day earlier on the 12th, and made a note entry in the log book. Wow! That's funny.

Sky Over Bloomington HillPower Pole SilhouetteI've removed the unregistered cache so no one else will accidentally find it and think that it it this cache. I'll go hid it somewhere else once I clean it up and dry it out.

Thanks, call2teachfamily, for a fun evening find!

Oh, and the sunset was absolutely stunning. I stuck around for over an hour just to watch the colors change in the sky.

Then I grew impatient and left shortly before the sun broke through the clouds on the horizon and lit up the whole sky in a blaze of glorious color, illuminating the clouds from beneath. When I did notice, looking up out my car window, I immediately pulled over and snapped a few more pictures of the sky.

-Astounding
St. George, Utah

Another Saturday had arrived with sunny, shirt-sleeve weather, the air pleasantly cool and clear after recent stormy weather. Having had no real physical activity for two weeks, the urge to go hiking was nigh unto killing me. I made a quick call over...

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Pond by the Hot Spots cacheCache Found: Hot Spots by KLondyke and Yiners

5:55 PM Wednesday, 16 March 2005

My brother (caching handle Percible) and I felt the need to get out in them thar hills and do some exploring and cache hunting this evening, so we climbed into my old caching beast (a rattly black Chevrolet S-10 Blazer) and drove out to Apple Valley, then turned off the highway onto the dirt road that angles back westward up onto the Short Creek mesa.

It's been many years since...

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On Concrete Arrows
Random Tidbits and Musings on the Historic Aviation Markers in Southwestern Utah

While cache hunting (or geocaching), I've come across several large concrete arrows on the ground. At first I wondered what they were for, speculating that perhaps they were aviation markers of some sort. Later, after reading other cache hunters talk about the same arrows, and after reading a historical display in the St. George Utah Municipal Airport about the old Air Mail routes circa 1930, I learned that indeed these were indeed aviation markers, relics left over from aviation history.

Apparently Western Air Express was awarded the contract for the Los Angeles to Salt Lake City "contract air mail" route, route number four, or CAM-4, and made their first flight along the 650-mile CAM-4 route in April 1926 in a Douglas M-2 airplane. I don't know when the beacons and arrows were constructed along the route.

I have visited three of these arrows so far. I would like to visit more, if more exist.

One is located near the Bloomington Overlook cache by Drifty. If you vist that arrow and look where it points, you will see a crooked-topped mesa near Washington, Utah called Shinob Kibe.

Another arrow is located near the Shinob Kibe Cache by Astounding (That's me, of course! *smile*) atop that mesa. This particular arrow is airway beacon 37B or HO0622, part of the Los Angeles to Salt Lake City airway route, the "Contract Air Mail" route #4, or "CAM-4" route. If you visit the Shinob Kibe Cache, you can also log your visit to this arrow since it is listed as Airway Beacon Benchmark HO0622.

While recently visiting the Shinob Kibe arrow, I wondered if it pointed to the next arrow in the route, and if that next arrow still existed. Sure enough, the next arrow does exist. I used the search as an excuse to place a new cache, the Quail Creek Reservoir West Overlook cache, near the rim of the hill west of Quail Creek Reservoir. I placed the cache before I found the arrow. On the way back to my vehicle, a few hundred feet from where the cache is hidden, I came across the expected arrow.

Arrow above Quail Creek ReservoirBoth the Shinob Kibe and the Quail Creek arrows show evidence that metal towers once stood above the central concrete pads. Also, both of these arrows are approximately 55 to 56 feet in length. I need to revisit the Bloomington Overlook arrow to see how long it is and whether it too shows evidence of a beacon tower.

Airway Beacon Illustration Circa 1931 - Courtesy FAAI found a web site at the FAA that had this to say:These arrows in Southwestern Utah aren't quite 70 feet long. Since there is evidence of steel towers on at least two of these arrows, I think there is sufficent evidence that these arrows were a part of this or a similar air route beacon system.

If there were generators at the Shinob Kibe or Quail Creek arrows, the back concrete pads of both of these are tilted quite a bit (and don't show signs of great cracking or upheaval to indicate that the tilt is due to shifts in the ground), so I wonder how it worked.

Also, the only access route to the Shinob Kibe arrow is a narrow, single-file trail, so the concrete, steel, and/or any other equipment or supplies brought to that location would likely have been brought by pack animal, as is mentioned at the same FAA web page.

Interesting stuff...