AN EASY UTAH MOUNTAIN TOUR!

oriole

Their vacation trip to Utah had been nice, but nothing really spectacular yet. Of course they had only arrived here yesterday. They, Richard, a 17 year old boy and his sister Jennifer, 15, had come in the car with their folks to Cedar City. Their parents were visiting some friends there today, so they let the kids take the car to go on a little side scenic trip. "We need to know where you are going," the Dad said. "We are planing to go to Minersville and Milford," Richard replied. They all said goodby and the two young people left.

Richard & Jennifer went on a well paved 2 lane highway to Minersville, which was 36 miles north of Cedar City. The first part of the trip was mostly desert, just kind of flat country covered with small brush, with the mountains all around off in the distance.

Then they came to the mountains, with the highway winding in and around. The scenery was quite beautiful.

They were about 6 miles south of Minersville. Just then they saw a bunch of cars parked off the road on the right, and a group of people standing over by some trees. "Hey," said Richard, "what do you say we check this out? I don't know what they are doing, but it looks interesting. What do you say, Jen?" "Oh yes please stop the car!" So they stopped, parking their car next to the others, and got out.

They started walking towards the people. One quite tall, good looking, young man had seen them and was walking towards them. "Hi, I'm Brad Jones!" he said, "I guess you are wondering what's going on here." "Yes," Richard replied. "Well, we are getting ready to take a hike up that hill, and you're both welcome to come along." "How much do you charge?" Richard asked. "Oh nothing." replied the young man. "I am the guide, and we've arranged to have this hike for anyone who is interested . We even have a free lunch, which we will eat on top of the hill." "It looks like a mountain to me," said Jennifer. The guide replied, "Well, it is pretty big hill, but I've done this before, and it takes about 2 hours to hike up there & the same to come back down. We usually spend a half hour on top, so altogether it takes about 4 1/2 hours. We are starting at 10 AM, which is in just a few minutes. So, are you interested in coming along?" "I am," said Jennifer! "Me too," said Richard. "We should be back here by 2:30", said the guide, "So come on over and meet the rest of the folks."

Most were young people between 15 & 25. A few were older, between 30 & 50, and there were about the same amount of women as men. They were introduced to everyone.

The guide, Brad said, "Okay everyone, please come over to my truck and get a canteen of water. We have enough for everyone." He strapped a fairly large pack on his back. "Lunch!" he said, as he smiled at Jennifer & Richard. "Okay," he announced to the group, "Just follow me in single file. Some places we can spread out more, but it is easier to just follow the trail-----and the guide! We will hike to the top of that hill, and spend about 30 minutes there for lunch and to look around, then hike back down. we should be back down here at 2:30 PM."

Everyone had picked up a canteen of water, and the guide had checked everyone's shoes or boots, to make sure they were suitable for hiking. They all passed the test. "Lets go!" he said. So they all followed in a line behind Brad, the guide. Richard & Jennifer were near the middle. You could see a slight trail through the brush and trees, although it hadn't been used very much, probably more by animals than people.

Suddenly a bush moved, there was a rustling noise, and something was running away from them. Then they all saw it, a jack rabbit, running between some brush and leaping over others.

"Oh there's a lizzard!" a girl near the front shouted. It was hiding under a brush, but ran away before Jennifer & Richard got there. Later they had a chance to see quite a few lizzards, here and there along the trail. They saw lots of other wildlife, too. Once a fox ran away from them. "Oh look! A dog!" a lady said, but Brad told her it was a fox. It wasn't very big and had a bushy tail.

"Stop for a minute," the guide said. "Look ahead!" They all looked, and there stood s deer. It was a doe, and was almost invisible until it started to walk away. When it moved they cold see it more clearly, then it took off bouncing away through the trees. They continued walking up the trail. Some places it was quite flat and easy walking. It even went downhill in some places, but sometimes it got quite steep, and took more energy to climb up. Sometimes the trail was almost invisible, and like the guide had mentioned, they didn't always walk in single file, but sometimes walked side by side.

They saw lots of insects and small animals. They saw beetles, a few stink bugs, even a couple of tarantula spiders, and other small spiders, and lots of ants and ant hills. They also saw mice,squirels, lizzards, rabbits, and other small animals, even a horned toad. They saw other deer, also. Even the plants were interesting, too. At first there was a lot of brush and some grass. Higher up there was less grass and brush, and more rocks and trees, lots of pine & cedar trees and other types of bushes, etc. It was all very interesting, pretty, and even educational.

They stopped for a break for a few minutes, and drank some water. They had come up on the hill quite a ways, because they could see the cars way down below. They looked so small. They could also see tiny trucks and cars on the highway moving slowly along. The highway looked like a ribbon at this altitude. "It looks almost the same as if we were in a plane," a man said. "Whats that over there?" asked another man pointing towards the north. "Oh, that's a dairy barn", Brad replied. If you look a little farther to the right you can see the town of Minersville." It really looked quite small. "What are all those dozens of real long white buildings scattered across the desert to the west?" A boy asked. Brad replied, "Oh, those are part of the pig farm. There are thousands of pigs being raised out there. They keep building more and more buildings for them."

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the hill and mountains around looked so beautiful. One lady said, "Oh this is all so pretty. I wish I had a home right here on the side of this mountain!" "That would be nice," several others agreed.

They continued their hike on up the hill. They saw many other animals, birds, insects, and beautiful trees, bushes,etc. It wasn't long before they arrived at the top of the hill. It was kind of flat for a little ways, they could see it went on down the other side. There were lots of trees on top. It was beautiful, and the view was fantastic. The other nearby hills, and mountains looked very pretty. The distant mountains were like a painting. The desert looked large and flat. The highway looked even smaller from up here.

"Is anyone hungry?" asked the guide. He got a lot of response to that question, because the long hike up the hill had made everyone ready to have lunch. He and another man spread out a flat piece of plastic on the ground in the shade of a beautiful pine tree. Then they unpacked his pack, which had sandwiches and quite a lot of goodies in it. They all enjoyed the picnic, also drinking water from their canteens. They spent a little while walking around on the top of the hill, and enjoying the fantastic view. "It is well worth the effort to get up here to get to see all of this" a young lady said. They all visited with each other and got acquainted. Jennifer said to Richard, "I'm sure glad we stopped and joined this group on this hike. Now I have lots to tell my friends, and Mom and Dad."

After a while Brad, the guide, said, "Well I'm sure many of you would like to just stay up here, but we better head back down the hill." They gathered up the plastic and things, and made sure they didn't leave any trash on the ground. They all started back down the hill, following the same trail they came up on. Brad stayed at the back of the group this time, making sure everyone was getting along okay. "Be very careful going down," he said, "especially where it's steep. Step carefully, and don't run." They all seemed very happy as they went down the hill. They still saw lots of animals, etc. as they went along. It wasn't long until they arrived at the bottom of the hill, everyone said goodby, and thanked the guide for the good hike. He told them to come again sometime. He talked with Richard & Jennifer, "Well, are you glad you came along?" "We sure are!" they both replied. "See ya later." they said to Brad, and everyone. "See ya!" Brad and the others said.

Richard and Jennifer got into their car and drove on to Minersville (about 6 miles), and drove around town for a while. They stopped at a gas & goodie store and got some refreshments, then drove on to Milford, another 13 miles. They drove around there, looking at the new high school, a new church building, and other things, including a train at the crossing. They found out that all the trains that go through Milford, stop there. They saw some kids around town that were about their same age, and even talked with some of them, exchanged addresses, and made a few new friends. "Well, Jen, this has been quite a day, hasn't it," Richard said. "I guess we better get back to Cedar City." "Right!" answered Jennifer. So they headed back to Minersville and on to Cedar City. "Well how was the little side trip?" their Mom asked them, when they arrived back in Cedar City. "It was GREAT," they both said. So they sat down with their folks and told them all about their day!

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