Top of the World Travel Bug Visits St. George, Utah1^st Cache Visited: Travelers Rest at 3:30 PM MDT (-0600)
2^nd Cache Visited: Relax on the Virgin at 3:55 PM MDT(-0600)
3^rd Cache Visited: Sheer Beauty later in the evening
Travel Bug Dropped Off: Top of the World at the Relax on the Virgin cache
Saturday, 20 September 2003 - 3:30 PM MDT (-0600) and 3:55 PM MDT (-0600)

With the Top of the World travel bug burning a hole in my pocket ever since I picked it up two weeks earlier in the Virgin Gorge #4 I-15 Rest Stop/ cache, I knew I needed to get outside and go cache hunting. And thanks to utahtim, there was a nearby cache, Relax on the Virgin that I hadn't yet found, one I'd intended to visit earlier this month, but had never got around to it. Since I'd promised to drop off the travel bug and not hold on to it for too long, I had the perfect excuse to go cache hunting.

On my way, I dropped by my friend's house to see if...

Read the rest of this article...

After just over a week of web site downtime, my site is at last back up, all data restored! All this due to some corruption of the RAID-5 array when I moved the four drives from the Athlon 700MHz machine to a new Athlon 2600+ machine. For a bit, I was worried that I'd lost some of my data, including some of these web site postings. Fortune has smiled on me, and so far, all my data appears intact, though it has been a rough week trying to figure out ways to recover it.

Next, I need to get my mail server running again. Once that's done, I then need to figure out where I'm gonna stash the new server box. Right now it's sitting out in the middle of my living room amidst the clutter of torn-apart-computers (yes, I've had several open, guts strewn across the room) and shipping packaging. I wish I had a good server closet.

Cache Visited: Virgin Gorge #4 I-15 Rest Area
Travel Bug Dropped Off: Fruitty Tutti
Travel Bug Picked Up: Top of the World
Saturday, 6 September 2003 - 8:00 PM MDT (-0600)

You see, it's like this. The Fruitty Tutti travel bug I picked up yesterday, while a friendly little thing, was chomping at the bit all through the night last night and all day today, prodding me to take it somewhere so it could continue it's journey, to see more of the world. Now I really wanted to oblige, since cache hunting was something I hoped to do today. But by 7:00 PM, I hadn't yet had a chance to go cache hunting. And to make matters worse...

Read the rest of this article...

Cache Found: Traveler's Rest
Travel Bug Picked Up: Fruitty Tutti
Friday, 5 September 2003 - 5:15 PM MDT (-0600)

This was the second time I found this cache, but I forgot to log online last time, and since that time it has been moved to this new location. I think I must have been a tad crazy to go even though it was late in the afternoon, since it was still rather hot outside...

Read the rest of this article...

White standstone lit by the setting sun in Snow Canyon State Park - the perfect setting for an evening hikeThroughout this week, and especially today (Saturday), I've been chomping at the bit to get outside and go for a hike. As the day wore on, and evening neared, I worried that this week would end without my ever getting away from St. George into the outdoors. As a last resort, shortly after 5:00 PM, I messaged my brother (you know, using one of those online instant messaging systems, Jabber in this case) asking him if he wanted to go for a hike in nearby Zion National Park. He was game.

By 6:00 PM, I had not yet departed for Hurricane to pick my brother up. I'd been searching and searching for my glasses, without which I am too blind to drive, to no avail. I couldn't remember where I'd put them, and they weren't in the usual places. So I called Kendall back, and proposed another solution. He could drive to St. George and pick me up, and we'd go hiking somewhere around here. We settled on the very close Snow Canyon State Park.

The evening sky was streaked with clouds, the tattered edges of summer storms to the east, and the air was much cooler as the sun sank toward the painted stone cliffs to the west. It was the perfect setting for an evening hike. From the parking lot, we descended toward the west across sandy soil and black lava rocks.

Read the rest of this article...

Cache Found: Images of Utah
Tuesday, 1 April 2003 - 6:13 P.M. MDT (-0600)

When I saw that this virtual cache had migrated to my neck of the woods, I had to take a break this evening and zip to it with my camera and snap a few shots. All it took was one glance at the online map of the location, and I knew exactly where it was: Zion National Park's Kolob Fingers scenic loop overlook. So around 5:30 P.M., I departed my abode in St. George and headed northward...

Read the rest of this article...

Quest for Drifty's Sand Mountain Overlook Geocache
by Astounding - St. George, Utah

What better way is there to spend a mild Southern Utah New Years Day than with family and friends exploring the sand dunes and sand sculptures of Sand Mountain near Hurricane, Utah, hunting for a G.P.S. stash (geocache)? I can't think of any.

Read the rest of this article...

Cache Found: One Giant Step in Arizona (Virtual Cache) by Taelon

Thursday, 26 Dec. 2002 - 2:00 P.M. MST (-0700)

The Snowy Road - For a goodly part of the trip south from Colorado City, Arizona to Tuweep/Toroweap Point, the road was snow-covered.The day after Christmas my parents and I decided to drive from Hurricane, Utah the overlook at Tuweep Point (or Toroweap Point depending on which way the map you use chooses to spell it). After preparing a picnic lunch and plenty of water and telling everyone where we were heading, we hopped into my vehicle and headed eastward down the highway to Colorado City, Arizona.

We were surprised as the highway climbed from the Hurricane valley to the high desert plains below Caanan Mountain to see that there was snow still on the ground. We are so used to the mild weather in Hurricane and St. George, Utah where snow never seems to stick around for very long that none of us thought to worry about it.

Once at Colorado City, Arizona (the town on the Arizona side where the highway crosses the Utah-Arizona border) we turned westward, then southward, on to the snow covered dirt road that would be our route to Tuweep/Toroweap. At first we worried that perhaps the packed snow (there were many sets of tracks in the snow) might be a bit slippery, but our fears melted (though the snow didn't) as we continued southward.

Tuweep/Toroweap Point/Overlook - Looking upstream (eastward) along the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. That's my shadow there on the sandstone cliff.

The inch or two of snow scattered across the desert plains made the drive southward toward Mt. Trumbull beautiful. This part of the road, during the heat of the summer, is much less interesting, looking more barren and desolate.

Before long the road began descending into the valley that runs in a line southward, beginning just east of Mt. Trumbull (the mountain, not the ghost town) and continuing all the way to Vulcan's Throne, the volcanic domed hill at the edge of the canyon just east of Tuweep/Toroweap Point. As the we descended in altitude, the snowy road was spotted with bare patches of dirt, then soon it was the other way around, the dirt road with patches of melting snow, and then it was entirely dry.

The Grand Canyon and Colorado River - That's me looking downstream (westward) down upon the Colorado River (and Lava Falls) from Tuweep/Toroweap Point.We paused for a pit stop at the Tuweep Ranger Station (and the Ranger Station sign spells it Tuweep even though some of the National Park maps available at the information booth there show it as Toroweap - I guess even the NPS can't decide which way to spell it), then finished the last few miles of road to the overlook parking area.

Wow! What a beautiful place! The overlook is at about 4500 feet elevation, with the mighty Colorado River slowly continuing to carve the canyon nearly 3000 feet below the overlook rim. It is simply stunning! But be careful! There are no guard rails to keep one from plummeting over the precipice. Red Navajo sandstone formations abound atop the cliffs.

If you hike a very short distance westward, you can gaze down again at the Colorado River as it flows downstream to the west, and see Lava Falls far below Vulcan's Throne, or even Vulcan's Forge (or Vulcan's Anvil), a 50 foot tall island of black lava rock poking up in the middle of the Colorado River below.

The Sun Sets in the High Desert - The sun set behind the western hills on the snowy high desert plains north of Tuweep and Mt. Trumbull
As usual at almost any overlook at the Grand Canyon, one could spend forever gazing at the magnificent sculpture wind and water has carved, the bends and curves of the canyon creating layer upon layer of successive vistas, one bhind another, almost to infinity. Beautiful! I love it!

After exploring a bit and snapping a few digital photos, we ate our picnic lunch at one of the picnic tables right there at the overlook, not more than 150 feet from the edge.

While the air was cool, the day was very pleasant, sunny but crisp. The southern winter sunlight left most of the south side of the canyon in shade. The large mesa directly to the south across the canyon, in the Hualapai Indian Reservation, was also beautiful, its visible north face still sprinkled with snow.

By the time we turned around and began our return trip, after a pit stop at the nearby campground restrooms (the restroom there at the overlook was rather, ahem, unpleasant while those at the campground and ranger station were clean and tidy), the sun was sinking quickly in the sky. The soon-to-set winter sun lengthened the shadows and emphasized many of the surrounding landscape's features as we made our return journey, adding depth.

By the time we made it back to the flat high desert plains south of Caanan Mountain and Colorado City, Arizona, the sun was setting. THe setting sun made even the stunted dry desert brush cast a long shadows across the snow, painting them in golden light. Ahead of us, Caanan Mountain's sandstone cliffs were lit in that ethereal light. What a treat!

The Painted Desert - As the sun sets on the high desert plains north of Tuweep/Toroweap and Mt. Trumbull, I just had to snap this shot of the road winding across the snowy plain toward Caanan Mountain (that's the red sandstone formation in the photo, due north of the photo location).By the time we reached Colorado City and the highway, the evening sky had passed through the entire palette of stunning sunset colors. It was the perfect end to a perfect day to the perfect place for enjoying the majesty of nature (and a picnic to boot). Wow!

I'm posting a few photos from our trip. But mere digital snapshots just don't do justice to being there and seeing and experiencing such beauty first hand. Visit this cache site! It is well worth it. (But go prepared with a good map, good tires, plenty of water, a camera, etc.)

-Astounding
St. George, Utah

Cache Visited: All Washed Up in Chinatown by tslack2000 & Cach-U-Nuts
Saturday, 15 June 2002 - 9:45 A.M. MDT (-0600)

It was a dark and stormy night. Oh, wait. I wish it had been a dark and stormy night last night, because Southern Utah desperately needs the rain. But that's another story.

Instead, it was a clear, dry morning when I arose to the beeping of my PDA alarm, earlier than I normally rise on a weekend because I planned to go cache hunting with my brother and a coworker and we wanted to...

Read the rest of this article...

Cache Visited: Beaver Dam Wash Oasis
Monday, 26 April 2002 - Late Afternoon/Early Evening

Okay, I'm not sure that the date on this one is correct. I forgot to log this cache find, and so I am relying on AlAndaluz's log entry for the date. We had a blast in his truck, cruising the dirt roads, then exploring, taking the long way home up around Mineral Mountain, pausing to explore a few mine shafts entrances encountered along the way...

Read the rest of this article...