Monday July 23rd
Today finds us in Hatch, Utah, beginning our 3rd week working at the Mountain Ridge Motel and RV Park. I’m looking east towards Bryce Canyon, enjoying a beautiful rainbow over the mesa after an afternoon thunderstorm.
We accepted the position as workampers here on the 1st
of July and plan to be here until the 1st of November. We left
Colorado not quite knowing what to expect. Not the least of which was whether
we could drive west on I-70 due to the wildfire that was burning west and north
of Debeque, Colorado. As of Friday it had burned right up to the Colorado River
and had closed the highway. Thankfully, by the time we got there Monday
morning, it was burning farther north and partially contained.
We got to Grand Junction in time to do a major
shopping trip at Sam’s Club stocking up on the essentials like….you know…. Cajun trail mix and made it as far as Green
River. Since it was 100 degrees in the shade we decided to spend the night at a
KOA campground. This is the first time we’ve stayed at one. It was real nice,
had a pool and a free continental breakfast! We’d never experienced a KOA before and although
it was expensive ( kinda like the Hilton of RV parks )the pool was realllllly
cool.
The drive from Green River west was amazing…..incredible
rock formations and cliffs. Lots of markers along the way, explanations about the
ancient rocks and interesting snippets of history about explorers and outlaws. Trip to Hatch pictures
When we were talking with Tony the onsite manager about the
position here, we explained how it would be a comfort to get away from the
wildfires in Colorado. Then, wouldn’t you know, as we were driving south on Hwy
89 towards Hatch, we began to see a lot of smoke. Evidently we were getting
closer rather than further away from wild fires since we soon learned that a
wildfire had started Sunday afternoon in the mountains just 20 miles south of
Hatch. It was around the town of Duck Creek south of Hwy 14 in a heavily
forested and populated area. The good news was that it probably would not head
our way but it was touch and go for a week or so. As of this writing it is history.
We love it here. Hatch is a really small town of about 250
people ( permanent residents ), has 1 gas station/convenience store, 3 motels,
2 RV parks (attached to the motels), 4 restaurants, 1 motorcycle shop, 1
antique store, a town hall, a pioneer museum, a post office, power company office and of course an LDS
church. It is a beautiful little town right on the Sevier River (pronounced “severe”),
setting at an elevation of 7600’ +/-. The temperatures are quite mild with daytime
highs in the 70’s - 80's and nights in the 50’s (eat your heart out Phoenix). Scenes around Hatch pictures
Bryce Canyon National Park is 30 minutes to the north and east
of us and Zion National Park is 1 ½ hours to the west and south. If you continue east
on Hwy 12 (a National Scenic Byway ) you can explore Escalante NM, Capitol Reef
NP and lots of places in between (more
on those in a future blog). It’s
beautiful and busy with tourists in the summer many of whom are from foreign
countries. Come November all of the businesses in Hatch close until May including
the only gas station. Not because of winter weather, although that plays a part, but
primarily because of the lack of tourists.
While the National Parks may be the biggest attraction they’re
by no means the only one. This area is home to one of the largest OHV trail
systems in the world. People come from
all over the country, many with vehicles in tow, just to ride and explore the 600+
miles of trails that criss-cross the area. We see all sizes and kinds of ATV’s come
through, many with kids driving which is weird to see. They can drive if they
are 8 years old and under adult supervision (kind of a cool way to introduce
kids to driving when you think about it). Especially when they (forest service)
publish information about the dangers and responsibilities involved in OHV (that’s
Off Highway Vehicle for the uninformed) use.
The Mountain Ridge Motel and RV Park has 8 rooms and 16 RV
spots and is connected to the gas station/ convenience store. Mountain Ridge Motel and RV Park We clean rooms and do the laundry in the
mornings and Jim runs the motel office from 5-10 pm and I run the store. So we work 3 ½ days on, 3 ½ days off which
gives us lots of time for exploring.
One of our first priorities was to check out the river and
neighboring creeks to see how fishable they were and what access was like. Being
from Colorado access is always a consideration when exploring unfamiliar water
since most of it is private and landowners are rumored to shoot first and ask
quest ions later. Our first adventure was to drive up to the village of Duck
Creek and check out the back roads along the way. We took a wrong turn and
wound up at Panguitch Lake a mere 20 miles out of the way. No biggie as it’s
all new territory. We also discovered Aspen
Mirror Lake and Duck Creek Pond along the way and Mammoth Cave which is a ½ mile
long cave formed by volcanic activity. It has 5 entrances but only one is accessible.
Its main claim to fame seems to be the rare bats that hibernate there in large
numbers. In the winter access is restricted to protect the bats but in summer
you can explore at will. We choose not to….three guesses why, LOL. Pictures of Duck Creek and Mammoth Creek
To our surprise the fishing has turned out to be much better
than expected. The Sevier River which flows thru town is more of a stream than
a river averaging 10’ to 15’ at the widest with many twists and turns. You won’t
find much information online about this little gem, which is a good thing.
Riffles, seams, undercut banks and deep pools abound loaded with Rainbows and German
Browns averaging 14” and up. Then there’s Assay Creek and Mammoth Creek (ten
minutes away), the afore- mentioned Panguitch Lake and Tropic Reservoir (to
name just a few) all fishable and for the most part unpressured. Oh, and the
best part is that access is pretty much wide open. (Jim is writing the fishing
report)
For Jim’s birthday we drove up Proctor Canyon. It was fun to
put the Jeep in 4WD and explore. There were some great rock formations along
with lots of pine trees, aspen and open meadows with deer. We eventually got to Tropic reservoir and did
a little fishing. From the map it looks like this reservoir parallels Bryce
canyon to the west. We stopped at a nice little restaurant for dinner…. Evidently
they are famous for their pie …… the slice you get is at least a ¼ of a pie! And
it was delicious…. not to mention the ice cream. Pictures of Proctor Canyon
Yesterday we went to Cedar City (about 1 ½ hours to the
west). We needed to make a major grocery
run, especially coffee, dog food and you guessed it…. Cajun trail mix. It was a
nice drive but the highway is only open on the weekends as they are repairing
the road in 3 places from landslides that happened over the winter. We have to
work Saturdays and many places are closed on Sunday in Utah, but we knew that Wally World would be open. (We had gone to Panguitch which is a slightly bigger
town north of us on our 1st Sunday off to get veggies and every
store, except for the gas station, in town was closed……even the grocery store).
Ya gotta love this country life…..
hopefully we should only have to make the drive to the big city once a month. Pictures on the way to Cedar City
Tomorrow is a statewide holiday, Pioneer Day, which
celebrates the Mormon pioneers that settled the state….even the post office is
closed. There is a parade in the morning and lots of activities with a BBQ in
the evening…maybe fireworks but the fire danger is still high. Do you know of
any other state that has its own holiday? Needless to say the parade was short (about one block long) but the whole town turned out to watch. The BBQ was really more of a pot-luck with skillet fried taters, pulled pork, salad, rolls, all kinds of cakes, pastries and homemade root beer. Pioneer Days parade pictures
Here are 2 links to information about Pioneer Day
In the words of John Mellencamp’s song “Small Town”
“No I cannot
forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget
the people who love me
Yeah, I can
be myself here in this small town
And people let
me be just what I want to be”
Until next
time with much love Jim and Becky……….
Hi Becky and Jim, I glad you are doing good, we miss you on the Ocean Spirit.
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Jose Mojarra, MD