It was shaping up to be a busy and exhausting quarter but I worked hard to find a window to get away for four days of R&R- rocks and recreation in this case. Ryan and my schedules aligned so I took a final journey in my Prius (before selling it) out to Cedar City to meet up. I had the misfortune of driving through Las Vegas as the freeways were completely jammed for an event at the Speedway, the Electric Daisy Festival, which I now know as an enormous Coachella-esque festival for electronic dance music. I arrived late to Ryan's and crashed.
After some sleep, we packed and jumped in Ryan's truck mid-morning for a half hour drive north to Parowan where I was intrigued to check out Benson Creek, a basalt slot canyon and unusual feature for the Colorado Plateau. We started hiking a little before 10:30am, already sweat-inducing. A mild 1 mile approach led us mostly along a family-oriented trail, then a 400 ft off-trail climb up scree and rock outcrops to the dramatic head of the slot. The water level was suitably low that I did not bother with the neoprene top and instead just wore my old splash top. The canyon was fairly abrupt, dropping 250ft over four rappels to 105ft over a lateral distance of only 700 ft. The rappels were clean and the anchors solid, clearing getting lots of use as a beginner canyon as well as rock climbing and ice climbing access.
The first rappel was easily the nicest with a plunge into the dark slot below (above and frontispiece). A few steps further the second rappel started through a couple tiers, also with nice red weathered walls contrasting with the flowing waters. A short hallway of outstretched arm-width slot followed, then a ninety degree turn through a more open canyon of green vegetation and turreted rock formations above.
The third rappel was the shortest and more sloping than the others. More walking through a bedrock floored canyon led to the final rappel which dropped off the last of the lava flow in a wide cliff-lined amphitheater. Even the last walk down to rejoin the trail was pleasant with a notable wall of colorful travertine springs emerging from the base of the basalt flow. The canyon took us 2.5 hours round trip. We both agreed it was excellent bang for the buck, even if it greedily left us wanting more.
Leaving Benson Creek, we continued up Parowan Canyon up through the quiet off-season ski village of Brian Head, detouring to check out several of the lookouts for Cedar Breaks. It had been years since I had past through to see the colorful red, orange, yellow, and white cliffs that contrast so dramatically with the patches of white snow, dark green conifers, and bright blue skies. Now at over 10000' with a stiff wind, it was surprisingly frigid. We stopped briefly at North View Overlook, Chessmen Ridge Overlook, and Point Supreme Viewpoint near the closed visitor center, providing several different vantages around the intricate gully network actively eroding into the ancient lake deposits of the 50 million year old Claron Formation.
Leaving Cedar Breaks, we continued across the high elevation Markagunt Plateau and navigated backroads to Mammoth Cave, a half mile long cave network hosted in lava less than 2000 years old. On the way we had some random people encounters including a couple guys that managed to absolutely mechanically shred their side-by-side mostly likely driving wrecklessly, and then a couple guys in the parking lot area unintelligently swinging a brand new metal detector around way off the ground. At the main entrance of the cave we soon realized it was actually two different lava tube tunnels that crossed one above the other that had collapsed at their intersection. The cave was neat. Not overly long or enormous passage or interesting features, but well worth a stroll. We did two different throughtrips through the cave from the central entrance, satisfied enough to not need to stroll down the muddy wet passages to see more.
We drove another 15 minutes to check out one further lava tube, Bowers Cave, on our way back to Cedar City. Bower was less interesting with one ladder entrance into a sizable passage that became wet and muddy in both directions, killing our enthusiasm for more.
We regrouped at Ryan's place by driving down Cedar Canyon to kill some of the late afternoon hours and then packed up for another half hour drive to the Three Peaks area to look for fluorescent minerals beginning around 6:30p. First we checked some new-to-Ryan quarries and dumps, finding a few interesting magnetite pieces but nothing particularly amazing. Shortly before an amazing sunset we drive to the main tailings Ryan had been collecting on and sure enough interesting pieces of magnetite veins with apatite crystals were not uncommon. Once it got properly dark, we frantically collected without pause until about 11:30p! It was cold but I was too absorbed into collecting to care. The midwave UV lights picked up hot pink apatite (sometimes with a hot blue mineral for true 90s colors), in amazing patterns that contrasted with the jet black unresponsive magnetite. I was in a frenzy and it was some of the most fun mineral collecting I have ever done, with sweeps of the black lights causing specimens to glow out of the darkness, as if flashing "pick me, pick me". I lost control and managed to collect three 5-gallon buckets worth of treasures, this after attempts to high grade. Needless to say they were mostly comprised of magnetite (5.2 g/cm3!) which made me exceptionally nervous about taking it all home in my Prius. I later found out my magnetite collected totaled 343 lbs! With more minerals collected in the coming days I would be loading my poor car down with 657 lbs of rocks!!! As I said it was some of the most fun and rewarding mineral collecting I had ever done. I was grateful to Ryan for sharing it with me and the day left me jealous at how many neat things he has within a 1 hour radius of his place.
We chatted more and ate very very late. We had a rough plan for tomorrow but let it be flexible depending on how much sleep we needed and what the weather would hold. It was the first of several satisfying and action packed days. Thanks to Ryan. Photos of me by him.
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