Floating the Sevier River-Leamington Canyon Utah

One day in June, our friends Andy and Bonny asked if we'd like to go kayaking the Sevier River through Lemington Canyon with them. That had been on our bucket list and we had nothing going on that Sunday, so we said yes! Then we had to figure out what we were getting into! It turns out there isn't much information about floating/rafting/kayaking the Sevier River. We were able to find a little information, and it suggested that the river, at 385 cfs, might be a little low, since the website recommended a minimum of 500 cfs for kayaking. I checked with someone from Leamington, and he said that locals usually tube the river on Fourth of July and he thought we'd be okay, so off we went. We met our friends at the put-in, near the railroad tracks in Leamington Canyon, and stationed another vehicle in the town of Leamington.

The river started off mellow. Andy and Bonny had nice inflatable kayaks.

Meanwhile, we brought a menagerie of boats. A kids' hard-sided kayak, an inflatable kayak, a SUP, and an inner tube for just-in-case. We figured that since a highway was nearby, if we ran into trouble we could always get out and hike over to the highway.

We quickly figured out that the inner tube was very hard to steer, so we ended up dragging that along. That meant one person (usually Desert Girl) doubled up either on the paddle board or inflatable kayak.

Eventually the mellow section ended. We pulled over to shore to investigate the loud, roaring noise ahead of us.

This was the first diversion dam. It was quite impressive.

Downstream was quite rocky, beyond our family's ability, but Andy and Bonny were able to negotiate it just fine.

Here was our portage, with a couple trips for my husband and me. It wasn't too long.

Then we were back into the water, this time moving faster.

Eventually we came to another dam, this one made of boulders. Here's Bonny easily negotiating it. (Our family also portaged this one!)

Downstream was quite exciting, with lots of white water. Desert Boy loved it.

But you couldn't go too fast, as a barbed wire fence crossed the river! Andy stopped and held it up for us. This was just the first of many more (I think about eight). We never knew when they'd be coming.

Once in awhile we could see more from the river, like the Leamington Canyon cement facility.

At a third diversion dam, a rancher warned us about the upcoming barbed wire under a trestle. It turned out to be at the second trestle down, and it was easy to miss, just out of the water a couple inches.

Navigating yet another barbed wire fence. I'm not sure how the kayakers do this at higher flows--some of the places it was hard to go under or over and if the water was moving faster, you might have a hard time getting out if needed.

Can you spot this one?

The river mellowed out and had lots more big turns. Still plenty of barbed wire fences.

It took us about 6.5 hours to negotiate 10 miles of river. It was a fun trip, and I'd do it again. (My husband probably wouldn't, he found it got a bit tedious after awhile--maybe partly because Desert Girl took a two-hour nap slumped against him in the kayak!)

Here's a view from Google Earth of our route. I couldn't find all the fences on Google Earth--there are many more than shown!

Trail Run up Hendry's Creek, Nevada

The kids went to 4-H camp for a weekend, which meant I had a free Saturday. Wow, what was I going to do? I felt a little delirious with free time! I decided to do something I like to do but they don't: a long trail run. I wanted to take the dog, which meant the trails in Great Basin National Park were out. So I went up to the North Snake Range to Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest to Hendry's Creek. There were lots of geology student tents along the way, but I didn't see anybody.

Not far from the trailhead I passed a huge patch of poison ivy. This is one of the few places in the area where it grows (also in Big Wash/Hidden Canyon and farther north around the Deep Creeks). I don't remember so much being along the trail like this, so I think it's spreading. :(

But then the trail goes into the uplands and all is good. I didn't know how far I was going to go, but I figured the high chance of rain might help turn me around. The trail is about 10 miles long to get to the amazing Table, a high elevation plateau near Mt. Moriah. I figured I wouldn't go that far today, but the thought lingered in my mind.

At mile 1.5 I entered Mount Moriah Wilderness Area. It doesn't really look much different!

There are lots of creek crossings. In early June, at high water, they can be dangerous. But in mid-July, I didn't even have to get wet.

It was cool getting to areas with big ponderosa pines. The dog did well, despite having broken her femur a few months ago and having surgery. We've been going on shorter runs to get her back in shape. And quite frankly, a lot of the uphill section of this "run" was fast walking. This photo was about mile 3.

This humongous ponderosa pine was about mile 4. I had turned on the "Map My Run" app on my phone so got an update every mile.

A cool flower, Scouler's St. John's Wort (Hypericum scoulei), that I don't see often.

At mile 5 I saw bristlecones (Pinus longaeva) ! Wow. These lower-elevation bristlecones don't live as long as the ones up on the high ridges.

Just a bit beyond was a nice campsite in the aspens.

And at this eighth stream crossing, a bit beyond 5 miles up the trail, I decided I would take a break and turn around. It felt so good to take off my shoes and put my feet in the cold water. I saw Bonneville cutthroat trout in the water.

I also enjoyed the fireweed, a pretty flower that grows in disturbed places. I remember it well from when I worked in Glacier Bay in Alaska.

I also enjoyed these Pinedrops, non-vascular plants with no chlorophyll.

Bowing to the millennial craze, I took a selfie showing some of the trail.

How cool, orchids! Streamside orchid-Epipactis gigantea. You don't expect them in the high desert, but they can hide out in riparian areas.

It was a lovely trail run, and even though I wasn't super fast, I had a great time checking out my surroundings and just being out in the wilds. My spirit felt renewed from this jaunt. And how great is it to still have places where you can hike/run and see no one!

A Visit to Rock Corral Recreation Area, Milford, Utah

The kids and I wanted to go to Cedar City, so we left the afternoon before so we could go camp someplace interesting. I wasn't exactly sure where we were going to camp, but as we approached Milford with the beautiful sunlight on the granite rock of the Mineral Mountain Range, I decided that would be the place.

I had been wanting to check out The Rock Corral Recreation Area for many years, but had always just gone by this sign along Utah Highway 21 on the south side of Milford.

It was a Friday night, so we were expecting to see lots of people up there. But it turned out we didn't see anyone else! We found a nice place to camp that even included a bathroom.


The moon was rising early, so I tried to get a photo of an awesome tree in the camping area with some of the stars showing.

The next morning I woke up early and wandered around. Even though I was in flip flops, I couldn't resist scampering to the top of a ridge for this view.

We left our camping area and headed to the day-use area.

We found more amazing rocks--and no one else!

The end of the road has a nice picnic shelter. 

We took a social trail from there and went by some maple trees.


And some oaks! We don't have oaks by us, so I'm always excited to see them.


We wandered for a bit, admiring the rugged scenery.


Then we headed out and actually saw one other person! We also took a short walk out a ridge, and down in the ravine next to a spring saw a deer.


We also stumbled across a Utah Life Elevated Geocache.


There are lots of opportunities for rock climbing and rock hounding in the Mineral Mountains. We didn't come prepared, so we headed on to Cedar City, taking the scenic way across the mountains. Some cows joined us on the road.


We didn't know where we would end up, but eventually we got to a tiny town with some interesting ruins.

Our morning explorations got us to Cedar City about lunch time, where we ate at the Hong Kong Buffet, which has really good sushi. Yum, yum.

Our next stop was to the Mastermind Room Escape. Desert Boy had gone for his birthday with my husband and Desert Girl, and with some hints, they had made it out of the Ski Lodge in 65 minutes. I had made a snafu ordering the tickets, so had the ones that I had gotten on Groupon that were only valid during the open hours (meaning you might be paired with another group). The snafu meant that I had the opportunity to go too, so we signed up for the Detective's Room.


While waiting, we worked on some other puzzles.

Well, I'd like to say we were awesome detectives and got out in 39 minutes, but we didn't. We didn't get out at all. But it was fun (for the first half hour) and then a little frustrating (when we couldn't figure out clues).  Overall it was a good experience, and we learned some things about ourselves (like we need to be a lot more thorough searching).

On the way home, I snapped a photo of this wildfire that had burned right across the highway near Minersville. The retardant drops were really obvious.

It was a fun short trip, and I always enjoy checking out new things!