Our Lexington Arch Adventure

 Last weekend the weather was perfect for our first camping trip of the season. After spending a good part of the day with friends, we set up our camp, which coincided nicely with Desert Girl's nap. Once she woke up, I was itching to explore, so the kids, our dog Henry, and I went off to explore an abandoned road.

 It went toward this intriguing looking canyon. Oh, the fantastic limestone to explore! The old road branched, and we went uphill.

The track eventually stopped, right near a pile of snow. I told the kids they shouldn't sit in the snow, but they did anyway. The are still excited by snow! They were even more excited by the candy snack I gave them--a real treat.

 When we got back to camp, it was time to start the much-awaited fire. Here's my one-match fire, nothing artificial added.

 The kids were enthralled. I saw how fast the old sagebrush wood was burning and went to gather more!

I didn't manage to get many photos of the campsite, I was just ready to relax. Sleep was so-so, as it usually is in a tent! Henry started howling in the middle of the night, and we guessed that a mountain lion was close by. Fortunately it wandered off eventually and Henry stopped howling.

 The next morning it was time to go for a hike, and as it had been years since we had gone up to Lexington Arch, that's where we headed (it's actually a bit farther than what the sign says--and 800 foot elevation gain, so it's not a super fast hike).

 I liked this little plant. (Still need to look it up!)

 The views were great, with the layers of mountains stretching out towards the valley.

 Here are my husband and Desert Boy on one of the many switchbacks. I carried Desert Girl most of the way on my back. That was a good workout! Finally we arrived at the scenic overlook.

 The mighty 75-foot tall limestone arch. Someday I want to come photograph it at dusk or dawn, and had even thought about it for this trip, but sleep took priority.

 Desert Boy was happy to get to the overlook, as it was our designated snack stop.

 The clouds were building, but no rain was predicted so we continued up to the arch.

 We found more snow, but it was a warm day (especially for April), so it was welcome.

 We stopped at the bridge to take photos. In big snow years water flows under the bridge, but not this year.

 The last few switchbacks were tough, but we made it!

 It's thought that an ancient cave was at the site, and the arch is all that remains of it. I found what looked like old broken-off cave formations in the rock. It's fun to imagine what the cave would have been like.

 We tried for a family picture with the self-timer.

 I like the spire off to one side of the arch. It gives it some extra character.

 We had the arch all to ourselves. It felt really remote.

Then I had the bright idea that instead of taking the regular trail back, we could take the old trail back. It hasn't been used for about 25 years, but I had found parts of it a few years back. And I had conveniently forgotten how hard it was.

 The first part was really steep, but the views of the arch were great.

 We had some nice hiking through sage and forest alongside the snow-covered ravine. We had to go around big trees and fallen trees that covered the trail.

 But then it got really tough, with thickets of rose and willow that forced us to go up on the hill and do more bushwhacking, which was a real challenge with little kids. Fortunately my husband was able to wrangle them through the worst of it.

We kept hoping we would get to the end, but the canyon kept going and going. We were tired!

Finally we got to an old mine that was near the end (my photos didn't turn out so well).

 Desert Boy managed to catch a lizard, which was a highlight.

 Here, mom, check this out!

We went by this old cabin, which was really cool. It was built lincoln-log style, without nails. That gives you an idea of how old it is! I wonder how long it took the miners to build and how long they stayed in it. We were feeling remote, but they must have really felt like they were out in the boonies.

 Finally we got to the end. We won't be coming down from Lexington Arch that way again!

Seeing the truck gave Desert Boy and my husband a second wind and they rode their bikes back to the campsite, which was another adventure involving crashes. But all ended up well, and all our rose thorn scratches have healed and we can start planning our next camping trip!

A January Hike

 It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and I had spent too much time sitting all week, so I took the afternoon off to go hiking with the kids. Desert Boy was glad to go out, but had a couple tears because he wanted to have friends go hiking with us, and they were all busy with other activities.

 I'm not sure what Desert Girl was thinking. She was keeping warm in her coat. Not that it was all that cold--it was upwards of 50 degrees.

I wasn't entirely sure where to go, but ultimately decided to go towards a canyon not too far from our house. I couldn't get too wild, as I was driving the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van.

 On the way I spotted a large bird and noticed it had a white head. Brakes!! We stopped to admire the beautiful bald eagle. We usually have a couple that spend the winter near us, and it's always so cool to see them.

Then we continued on our way, and instead of going up into the canyon, decided to climb a "mountain" that juts up from the bench on the way up to the canyon. The "mountain" doesn't have a name, but when I deigned to call it a hill, Desert Boy was quick to disagree.
"That's a big mountain," he said.
Okay, I wasn't going to disagree.
"Do you think we can climb it?"
"Yes."
Good. Because I knew he could. But it would be better if we wanted to.
Before we started the hiking challenge, we had the fording the creek challenge. In the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van.

Momentum was our friend, and we made it across. Good thing, too. It would have been really embarassing to have to go for help and tell someone we had gotten the van stuck in the middle of the creek.

 Before I had gotten out of the van and Desert Girl strapped on me and the camera ready, Desert Boy and Henry had charged up the mountain. This mountain is known for lots of rattlesnakes in the summer, so it was nice to be climbing it in winter and not have to worry about them at all.

 When I finally caught up to Desert Boy, he was trying to scale the sharp limestone on a "huge" cliff. He made a good start of it, but eventually slid right down the face of it. He skinned part of his hand, getting a "blood owie." Then it was time for more tears because I didn't have a bandaid with me. I know, what an unprepared mom I was!

I convinced him we could continue, and despite great protestations, we ascended.

 We could measure our progress by how much smaller the sheep camp below looked.

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 Yep, it's tough to climb a mountain with a blood owie. Really tough.

 I was amazed that there wasn't any snow. And looking up the canyon, we could hardly see snow at the higher elevations.

 We hadn't gotten too far when the kids decided it was snack time or else. So we plopped down and they happily sipped and munched away. Afterwards they were slightly more willing to continue.

 They got much more excited when we found some fossils.

 Here I am holding one for scale.

 Then the whole mindset for the hike changed. Now we were on a mission to find cool fossils.

 And cool caves. This one was big enough for the kids to climb into it.

 It turned out it had a sunroof so I could look down at them. We found several other little holes to investigate, and Desert Girl got really good at spotting them. Unfortunately my camera battery died and the spare was back in the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van, so the photo taking part of the trip was over.

We made it to the peak and enjoyed the view. Then Desert Boy was really concerned about how we were going to get back down. I told him there was a special way. And lucky for me, there was. We went down a little gully, and on the way, we saw some bones. Desert Boy entered his dinosaur paleontologist mode and immediately declared we had discovered some dinosaur bones. He asked if he could take them home. I told him that if he carried them, he could. Then we found more bones. And more. It turned out that the gully was full of sheep bones, including some recent deaths with lots of wool all around them. Desert Boy had to pick and choose what he wanted and filled up his backpack. He decided he was going to make an Emmasaurus with that day's finds, and then we might have to go back to gather more to make a Henryosaurus and a Daddyosaurus and a Mommyosaurus.

 Here are some bones he had at the end, while he's looking at a large sheep dog with a blood-covered face that came up to check us out. Fortunately she was very friendly. I tried not to dwell too much on why her fur was blood red. It wasn't too appealing.

 I tried out my new camera lens.

Hurray, we survived the mountain! Then we went home and promptly all took a nap.

Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Pony Express

This last weekend we had an opportunity to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express. Each year, a dedicated group of volunteers rerides the trail that was used in 1860 and 1861 to take the U.S. mail from Missouri to California. If you aren't familiar with the Pony Express, check out this previous post and also this post I did when my nephew was one of the riders.
Our destination to watch the reride was Callao, Utah. No matter which way you go to Callao, it's a long dirt road to get there.

Desert Boy had fun amusing himself on the way. We also had to stop several times so I could take photos of the beautiful wildflowers. We saw quite an array,with lots of yellow horsebrush and little white dusty maidens covering many of the benches (alluvial fans).

We arrived at the Willow Springs Pony Express Station. The sign says "This station was established April 3, 1860 on the route of the Pony Express between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. It was discontinued October 27, 1861 when the transcontinental telegraph line was opened. An overland stage station was operated here from 1859 to 1870."

The current owners of the station, the Andersons, planned a big celebration including tours in this old car.

Here's a closeup of this neat car, a 1913 Model T.

The Willow Springs station was open. I failed to get a photo of the exterior, but I managed to get several of the interior.


The town of Callao had another heydey when the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, went through the town from about 1915 to 1925.

The old stove is really neat. On the table are some old photos along with a guestbook.

Henry smelled something good in the tipi.

So Desert Boy went in to investigate.

Food was being served in the school house, and it was nice to have a dry spot to go because the weather was a bit blustery.

Even little Miss Emma decided she wanted to eat.

Uh oh, she's got the bag of chips. We really should start her on something healthier.

Some of the people helping with the Pony Express ride but not riding at that moment toured town by horse. A red shirt and yellow bandana identified the riders.

Desert Boy even got a human version of a Pony Express ride thanks to Anna!

One of my friends lives in Callao and has some llama-alpaca hybrids. It was a surprise to see them peeking their heads above the grass and bushes.

We had a couple friends riding, and a contingent from Great Basin National Park went out to watch in the rain and wind.

I don't think Karla liked her photo being taken!
With four of our group wearing bandanas, we thought it might be fun to stage a holdup of the Pony Express. However, stealing government mail is a federal offense, so we settled for the bandit photo instead.

Here's Wayne, watching for his turn. Usually the reride occurs during 10 days (riding day and night) and has about 600 riders. The 150th reride was expanded to 20 days (riding mostly during the day) so more celebrations could occur, and even more riders participate. Wayne's section was only 0.7 miles, but still he'd get to be a part of history.

The mail came, packaged in the leather pockets of the mochila. Also included for the reride is a GPS unit so the progress can be tracked.

And Wayne is off!

He went so fast that his hat flew off and he's off in a blur.

I wasn't in the right position to photograph the next rider, Blake, but I did get a photo of him celebrating after his ride. He stayed on his horse the entire way and got the mail delivered to the next rider, so I'd say that's worthy of celebration.
Way to go, Blake!

We followed the riders back into Callao, a long caravan of trucks. One benefit of the rain was that we didn't have a big dust trail.

Then it was time to party.

In addition to numerous parties held around Callao, there was also entertainment in the school, with an excellent quartet who sang and played instruments.

I loved the sound of the fiddle and banjo, along with the bass and guitar. They also played harmonica, accordion, and another stringed instrument I didn't recognize.
Soon it was time for dancing, and Desert Boy and I joined in for the first square dance. I haven't done that since I worked at Glacier Bay in Alaska (perhaps the only places you can now find square dancing are in really remote locations).

With the wind and rain, we opted to camp in a hard-sided tent--the back of our van. It was better than we expected.

The next morning we got up and found some breakfast being served in the school. That was better than the breakfast we brought, so we enjoyed it and talked to the current and past presidents of the National Pony Express Association. They gave us a 150th anniversary pin.

It's amazing how such a short-lived venture has really captured the imagination of so many and is still remembered so much today.

We watched as the mail left the Willow Springs Station and continued heading east. It has a long way to go. Today, June 16th, it's in Wyoming.

The weekend was a fun glimpse back into history. If you'd like to find out more about the reride, check out the 150th Anniversary Celebration page.