Four days in the mountains with a few side trips thrown in. The Jeep performed excellently considering it is an eleven year old car with over 138,000 miles on it. We drove up early on Thursday morning from Las Vegas into the Wasatch table land at 9,400 ft elevation. Our stay was arranged at the Indian Creek Guard Station, a ranger cabin adjacent to Ferron Reservoir. Although the lake was right there, DNR had just done a fish kill to remove invasive species so there was nothing to fish on the lake. Willow Lake was only 3 miles away and it was hopping!
However, luck was not with me and my brother George caught all the fish. Which were delicious I should add. The cabin was really sweet – sleeps four with bunk beds, and surprisingly, running water through the end of the season. A flush toilet is a real luxury in a cabin at that elevation. By October 1st, the water will be turned off for the season, so we got in there just in time.
Friday morning we headed up to Skytop Road, which is four wheel only. The road cuts and winds across the very top of the mountains, with astounding views off either side. Some rather dicey exposed driving up there but I never had to use the granny gear. Average temperatures in the morning: 50’s. Afternoon: 60’s and 70’s. We took the rough road all the way down to Manti then headed north on the 89 to Alpine. Part of the reason for this trip was to get the small scale sculpture, “Rise of the Midgard Serpent, Resurrection” to Adonis Bronze for molding and eventually, bronze casting. It was a very successful tour of the foundry with Mary. I was given a small studio space with a few other sculptors to make last minute refinements to the positive. Adonis will cast it in the next 6 weeks and I will return then to make final refinements and approvals. Getting this work into their hands takes one more thing off my plate while I prepare for the Studio Tour in November.
Beautiful trip to a really lovely place. We got to see a side of Utah that was very special. We also saw some very interesting country on the way back.
