Meadow Hot Springs, Utah

 We recently visited Fillmore, Utah for the Old Capitol Arts and Living History Festival. I knew there were a few things to do around Fillmore that warranted spending more time, so I arranged to drive separately and spend the night. After the kids spent another hour or so at the festival, we left and went  to Meadow Hot Springs, west of nearby Meadow, Utah. The hot springs are listed in Millard County's travel guide, and a quick search on the Internet gave some better driving directions and also a caution that these hot springs have gotten very popular so are often crowded. They are located on private property, but the landowner permits public use.

When we first arrived, we were the only ones there, and a wildfire to the southwest was capturing our attention.

We parked and followed a very rutted road to a lovely-looking spring. From our research, we knew there was a hot spring, warm spring, and cold spring. With no steam rising, I was guessing this was one of the cooler ones, and Desert Boy tested it.

It was warm, so we decided to keep wandering around before we get wet. The wind was blowing, so I knew once we got wet, when we got out we would get chilled.

This warm spring just looked great from so many angles, so I couldn't resist another photo of it!

We headed north and found the cool spring.

It would be perfect for hot summer afternoons. This was a cool, windy fall afternoon, so we headed back to the warm spring.

We had seen other cars arrive and realized that the hot spring was near where we parked. We decided to enjoy the warm spring first, as we had it all to ourselves, plus it's easier to go from warm water to hot water. The kids asked if they could jump in, I gave the okay, and they were flying through the air!

I followed, and soon we were diving below the surface with goggles, trying to find out what was hidden in this hot spring.

It was a lot of fun exploring, and the water felt great.

The kids definitely love the water!

We wrapped up and ran to the hot spring.

The hot spring looked a lot smaller than the photos we had seen showed, and there was no rope across the middle of it. You have to be careful getting in, as there are rocky projections under water. It's about 20 feet deep (according to the Utah dive website, where they talked about diving the spring). It felt great, and we enjoyed it for a bit before a big group arrived.

Here's a view on Google Earth of the Meadow Hot Springs. The yellow thumbtacks indicate the individual springs.


Meadow Hot Springs is close to Meadow, Utah. To get there, from the I-15 Exit, take Utah Highway 133 about 1.5 miles south, and turn west on an unmarked gravel road (it had flagging on it when we were there). If this road goes over the interstate, you're on the right road. It's five miles from the turn off to the hot spring. Please don't leave trash and respect the spring so that it can stay open!

We had been warned that there might be a lot of garbage in the area, but fortunately it was clean. After our soaking, we left a donation in one of the canisters, and then headed out for our next adventure.

Fillmore Old Capitol Arts and Living History Festival 2017

 Earlier in September, our local schools went on a field trip to the Fillmore Old Capitol Arts and Living History Festival. I went along as a chaperone. Fillmore, Utah was the original state capitol, chosen because it was geographically near the middle of the state. A capitol building was started, but only one wing was completed before it was decided that the state capital should be closer to where the majority of people were living, and it was moved to Salt Lake City.

This bit of history makes for a great excuse to go learn about pioneer history. We started with a presentation that included songs about natural and cultural history of Utah. It was interactive and the students seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Then we split into smaller groups, and each group rotated through four stations. Our group wanted to start with the blacksmith. We watched him make a leaf out of a simple stick of metal. It was quite interesting learning about the forge, bellows, anvil, and various tools he used.

Then we went to some Native American dancing. These Navajo dancers explained a bit about their culture and customs.

The dances were elaborate and required a lot of choreography.

Next it was time to learn about dyeing fabric using natural materials like berries, nuts, tree roots, and more. There are four stages to dyeing fabric (and unfortunately I don't remember them.)

We also went to a jewelry maker. Then the the kids had a little free time and we went into the Territorial Statehouse museum, my first time in. It had three floors of exhibits, mainly about pioneer life.

Next it was time for lunch. Nearby, the Bar "D" Wranglers were performing for a large crowd. Several senior living homes had brought their residents to the festival.

After lunch we wandered through the booth area, with the kids having fun how to choose to spend their money.

Then out came the big lincoln logs. The kids were so excited to start building! They didn't make much of a door, though, but they could all get in and out, so I guess that's what counts.

The stilts were available for a try. I gave them a try and found I was not a natural.

There were also horse-drawn carriage and stagecoach rides, which were a lot of fun.

I had wanted to explore the Fillmore area more, so the kids stayed with me while the buses loaded up and we went to some hot springs and lava tubes (future posts coming). The next morning we went back to the Festival, where it was raining. That didn't keep the kids from building more with the lincoln logs.

And I really enjoyed the musical performances. Los Hermanos de los Andes played some beautiful South American music.

And there's so much I didn't get photos of: the quilt show, the gun show, many more living history demonstrations, the delicious food booths, the second stage, and more. They hold this festival the weekend (Thursday-Saturday) after Labor Day Weekend every year, and you can learn more at the Fillmore Old Capitol Arts and Living History Festival website.

Backpacking Rattlesnake Creek Trail-Ashdown Gorge

 Our goal: a ten-mile backpacking trip, over two days. Mostly downhill, with about a 3,000-foot elevation loss. The second part of the trip would be in the stream, with no trail. This was Rattlesnake Creek Trail to Ashdown Gorge, located in the Dixie National Forest near Cedar Breaks National Monument. Part of the trail was in Ashdown Gorge Wilderness Area.

This was the longest backpacking trip Desert Boy and Desert Girl had ever attempted. You can see how they felt in the photo above.

Fortunately we had bribes (a big bag of M&Ms). And I was so glad my brother Ed was along, as the kids love to be with him. Plus he could carry a big pack! We took a group photo before we started.

And then we were off, following the north boundary of Cedar Breaks National Monument. The kids had to carry a sleeping bag, water bottle, garbage bag, flashlight, and some snacks.

The fence stopped about 20 minutes into the hike, and we headed south to an unofficial overlook.

A few minutes further down the trail was another great view into the Cedar Breaks amphitheater.

 Can we say shallow roots? Yikes!

Those two views were the only ones we had into the amphitheater. Then we continued down the trail, which was mostly in the forest, but occasionally opened up to meadows.

We took a casual pace, stopping to photograph interesting fungi.

And a lichen growing on moss with moss growing on lichen.

And a really cool flower.

We also climbed over and under lots of trees. I had the kids count how many crossed the trail. 65! Whoa, definitely some trail maintenance needed.

We also had to take a break when Desert Boy caught a horned lizard.

And then Desert Girl had to take a turn holding it.

A couple hours into the hike we reached Stud Flat, a huge open meadow with great views of the Twisted Forest ridgeline to the south.

From there, we descended steeply to Rattlesnake Creek. It was joined by another creek. We had heard there were waterfalls, so while the kids rested, Ed and I went in search of them. We found this one:

and this one:

They weren't what we were thinking, so we continued another mile and a half down the trail, with Rattlesnake Creek on our left.

Along the way, the kids noticed rose hips, and after a short discussion, they decided to collect them to make rose hip tea (it's rather bland). Desert Girl also mentioned that if she fell and was bleeding, she would find yarrow leaves and use them to help with her wound. Later we passed the plant, and she identified it correctly. Proud Mama moment!

The kids moved fast. They knew that our goal was the trail junction, and that was where we would set up camp.

And then finally we were there. The camping area was okay, quite frankly we were expecting something a little nicer. The next morning I woke up early and walked up the High Mountain Trail, and just five minutes away I found a nicer campsite. Now we know! And by the way, although the trail sign here says the highway is only 4 miles away, it's 5 miles according to the Dye Clan and 5.7 according to the Adventure map we were following.

The kids enjoyed making a fire. The abundant ponderosa pine needles made it easy to start.

The next morning it was chilly, but we were up and ready to go on the second part of the adventure: through the creek.

We decided against starting straight away down Rattlesnake Creek because we didn't want to walk in the water so early. So our plan was to follow the trail around to Ashdown Creek and then follow that creek down.

Trying to make waterfalls look big. Next time we may bring little people.

The kids hiked fast through the meadow. Then we went around the corner and Ed and I got a little worried. We saw tall canyon walls along Ashdown Creek. What if we got to one of those waterfalls that blocked the way? Would we have to retrace miles?

We pushed on, though, the kids delighted to be in the creek.

We found a super cool camping spot with overhanging canyon walls.

And this huge horseshoe bend under the cliff wall was also cool.

In about an hour after leaving our camping spot, we came to a creek joining us from the right (north). It had to be Rattlesnake Creek. We could breathe a sigh of relief. I sure did. We hadn't gotten trapped by waterfalls. It turns out that if we went up Rattlesnake Creek from this point, we would eventually get to one of the waterfalls, with another one up Lake Creek. They couldn't have been very far from our campsite! Lesson learned--don't totally trust your map. Our Adventure map was not detailed enough. The Dye Clan has a good annotated topo map on their website.

As we proceeded downstream, we took periodic rest and snack breaks. We generally tried to do a five minute break every half hour.

The kids were super hikers. They had various conversations that kept them so occupied that they were in good moods most of the time.

They said the water wasn't very cold--to them it was much warmer than the swimming hole we've been frequenting all summer.

My brother and I were impressed with the tall canyon walls. I felt a bit like I was in the Zion Narrows--but without the crowds. In fact, we only saw three other people the whole time we were on this route, and that was only in the last mile.

At one point, the kids picked up dry mud flakes and pretended they were waiters.

The clouds were starting to build, so we were glad we had gotten an early start. This wouldn't be a good place to be in a flash flood.

 We kept a sharp eye for Flanigan's Arch, which is actually difficult to see from the river as it's up quite high. A sign is along the river, but we didn't see it until after we saw the arch.

Each twist and turn presented beautiful new views.

I knew the end was coming soon, but didn't really want it to end!

It was nice having a geologist brother with to recognize these mud ripples! Desert Girl agreed to pose for scale.

By this time it was warm and we had packed away coats and were looking for excuses to cool off more.

After about four hours hiking each day, we reached our second vehicle, parked at the avalanche area (up a bit from MM7) on Utah Highway 14. Success! This is a fantastic hike, and I highly recommend it. The trail reports say it can be done in six hours, but with kids and backpacking gear, it was about eight for us. And it was a real treat to be camping in the wilderness with no one else around.

Happy trails!