Instead of another skiing trip to Redmond-Bend with Ginny and Wally, we chose the desert of southern Utah for our semi-annual family gathering.
We got a reasonably early start on Tuesday and drove pretty much straight through to Ontario, OR where we stayed in our favorite cheap Motel 6. The only thing worth a note was finding a Gandolfo's NY Deli. The owner of the one-month old franchise offered us a free cup of soup and lots of samples of the "Italian brain-freeze", gelatos. We shared a tasty reuben and then a dish of the Bavarian mint and Caramello gelatos. As we were about to leave the owner said, "See you in the morning." and gave us coupons for breakfast sandwiches. Needless to say, we went back for breakfast.
After a stop for gas at Costco in Nampa and great deals on outdoor gear at Sierra Trading Post in Meridian, we drove on along I-84 past Boise, Twin Falls, and Burley (snow on Mt. Harrison), turned south to I-15 and drove over Black Pine summit (ca 5500 ft) and down past our old hang gliding sites at Brigham City and Willard Pk. We used Lisa's directions and pulled into the Harlamert's driveway around 1600. Their rented house butts up against the high foothills east of downtown Salt Lake City and we were able to take a walk along the ridge to where we could see I-80 heading up Parley's Canyon.
C.J. had talked to Alicia Wednesday and found out that the Point had been good for flying but only between 0700 and 0900, so we were up at 0615 and heading down I-215 by 7 a.m. We bumbled our way to the south side and found only a few people in the air, but by the time we had gotten set up, the wind had picked up and I was able to get a couple of 10-min toplanding flights. C.J. found that her foot hurt too much to kite her glider and had to pack up without flying. We drove over to Alicia and Rob's house to get her CD for the magazine then went back to meet Lisa in time to pick Chuck up at the airport. Instead of heading home, Chuck took us up Emigration Canyon (past the "This is the place" monument and park) to Ruth's Diner, then around the downtown district before picking up Scott at Judge HS. We spent another night with the Harlamerts after a delicious soup and bread dinner.
Friday - We left Salt Lake City about 0930 and had an uneventful cruise down I-15 with a brief stop at a tourist info place in Fillmore (in Millard County!). Past Cedar City we spotted a Zion National Park visitor center for the Kolob Canyons section of the park. It took a few miles to decide to take the time to check it out but we pulled a U-turn and went back. It was definitely worthwhile to take the time to drive the five-mile road along the red rock canyons and points. Next we checked in at ORE in St George, but our condo was not yet ready so we drove back to Washington City and hit Costco for gas and a big ham, a couple loaves of bread and other goodies. By the time we got back to ORE we were cleared to check in and used a hotel cart to move our stuff into the condo which looks out over the golf course. Ginny and Wally showed up an hour or so later and we had the ham and roasted veggies for dinner. Later, C.J. gave Wally the t-shirt quilt she had made for him.
Saturday - We talked Ginny and Wally into going back to the Kolob
Canyons with us for a hike up the middle fork of Taylor Creek . We left around 1000 and while we were getting gas at Maverik, a local pilot with a tow rig in his truck spotted us and gave us a bit of an introduction to flying in the area. The weather was perfect for a hike in the canyons - warm and sunny with a bright blue sky. We took the trail to its end at Double Arch Alcove, (photo, right) about 2.5 mi, then followed the stream course a bit farther to a big solution tube before turning back. On the way back we drove down through Toquerville, La Verkin and Hurricane to try to figure out where the launch and landing might be for the Hurricane
takeoff. We didn't find anything definitely but st least got the lay of the land. Back at the condo we had ham again (third time today including ham scramble for breakfast and ham sandwiches for lunch ).
Sunday - We took both cars to Las Vegas and south to Jean (2hr 53 min) to meet the Desert Skywalkers for a fly-in on the dry lake just north of Jean. Unfortunately the wind was strong and gusty so paraglider flying looked
very unlikely. We stuck around for two or three hours, long enough to watch one hang glider pilot take two tows behind a trailer-mounted hydraulic payout winch (photo, right). Ginny had already bailed back to Jean where she could make cell phone calls so we fit Wally and his huge pack in the Outback and caught up with her there. We split up then and C.J. and I stopped in Las Vegas to restock our rum, gin and kirsch supply at a discount liquor store. Then we drove up the Strip in stop and go traffic (mostly stop) to rubberneck the megaresorts/casinos. We gave that up after 30 minutes or more of
creeping alon
g and headed back to I-15 near Caesars Palace. The airshow was still in progress as we passed Nellis AFB but there was no more black smoke from the earlier bombing runs. Deciding that we were ready for a lunch break, we got off the freeway and drove down into Valley of Fire state park. It was full of bright red rock much of it pockmarked with solution cavities. We had lunch near a rock with petroglyphs then drove around a scenic loop and on out of the park as it began to get dark (In PST darkness here at this time of the year is at 1700!). We made it back to the condo by 1930 or so with only a stop to get out some water and buy a postcard in Mesquite, a casino town just on the Nevada border with Arizona.
Monday - We were hoping for an early start for hiking in Zion but Ginny had had a bad night and didn't get much sleep. Around 1145 or so we got on the road and headed to Zion Canyon via Hurricane, La Verkin and Springdale. We made a stop at the visitor center and decided on the Angels Landing hike which had a gain of 1500 ft in 2 miles. Ginny decided that she didn't want to do a strenuous hike and elected to stay along the Virgin River near the Grotto trailhead. Wally, C.J. and I started along the sandy trail following the river upstream. The trail climbed gradually at first and we could not see how we were going to gain all that elevation because the cliffs appeared to block our way. Only as we got closer could we see that the trail switchbacked up the face on retaining walls built of the same red sandstone as the cliff walls. As we reached the vertical headwall, a slot appeared and we entered a narrow hanging valley known as Refrigerator Canyon. At the end of the almost flat slope of the canyon we started up the cunningly contrived series of twenty-one short switchbacks known as Walter's
Wiggles for a former park superintendent. At the top of the Wiggles is Scouts Lookout and the last level resting place before the steep climb to Angels Landing. We stopped for lunch and a visit to the composting toilets before tackling the first segment of the steep "trail" to thesummit of the Landing. I went only a little ways beyond the first bump; even with handrails made of thick chains, it was nervewracking to negotiate the narrow ledge made up of sloping slabs of red sandstone. We returned to the car down the many switchbacks of the mostly paved (!) trail meeting Ginny on the way who had been photographing what she thought were moose. Back at the car we drove up to the end of the canyon and back looking for moose along the river. As we got almost back
to Grotto, we saw some mule deer including a big buck with full antlers. These were what Ginny had been stalking and photographing and we thought that they might have been elk (but a ranger later told us that there were no moose or elk in the park). On the way out of the park we passed several groups of photographers who were taking advantage of the sunset light to shoot the colorful canyon walls. We stopped at the gate and tried our hand at doing the same. We used up enough time that when we were out of the canyon, the sun had set and did not shine in our eyes during the drive home to the condo.
Tuesday - C.J. and I got up before 0700 to say goodbye to Ginny who was taking a flight home from Las Vegas. Wally was running the shuttle and hoped to be back by noon so we could go do something with the rest of the day. Around 1100 or so I decided to try the new GPS-Street Atlas combination to find the launch near Warner Canyon that the locals call "The Usual". It worked fairly well for helping me keep track of where I was but I also needed the gazetteer and the description of how to find it from the local we had talked to on Saturday. The road to launch was pretty steep and rocky but the Outback made it up just fine. I left a streamer and drove down to the LZ (basically the road below) and tied one there also. Wally was already back when I got home after a stop at Smiths for dinner supplies so we had lunch and then, with phoned directions from Jeff O'Brien, we headed off to find and fly the launch on the Hurricane Cliffs just south of Molly's Nipple. The directions were pretty good and the road was okay except for one
steep, rutted section that really needed 4WD or, at least, Wally's driving skill. The wind was blowing right in, a bit light but it seemed to be getting stronger so the plan was for C.J. and Wally to launch and, if they could, topland so I could fly. Alas, the wind velocity decreased and they only had 8-minute flights to a field below while I drove down, about a 35-min trip. After a dinner of ham (again!) in macaroni and cheese, we discussed the possibility of flying Cedar Mtn just outside of Cedar City tomorrow. Wally was concerned about the long reach out to a field and C.J. checked the forecast to find that the winds are supposed to be over the back. We'll check in the morning.
Wednesday - After breakfast, Wally called Thomas, a local instructor, and asked about flying today. He recommended Cedar City and gave Wally directions to launch - sort of. We took both cars so that we could all fly and still retrieve. At Cedar City we found the overgrown field behind a strip mall containing Albertsons and Staples and left Wally's car there. Because it was only 1030 or so and the launch side of the mountain was not yet in the sun, we decided to drive the 23 miles up to Cedar Breaks National Monument and then come back later when the sun's heating had set up some convective winds. On the way up I-15 to Cedar City we had encountered strong north winds but there was little or no wind in the town itself. Cedar Breaks was operating (to use the term loosely) on its winter schedule so no fees were being collected and all the rest rooms and the visitor center were closed. We stopped at a few overlooks and also hiked the one-mile Alpine Pond loop. The views were spectacular with the colorful rocks set off by the new snow. At an elevation of over 10,000 ft, winter had already arrived. It was after noon when we started down from Cedar Breaks and we spent the next couple of hours driving and walking around Cedar Mountain trying to figure out where the launch might be. The "C" was easy to find - right on the paved Right Hand Canyon Road, but there did not seem to be a clear area to launch below the guardrails of the overlook and it looked like a long glide out to the LZ. We drove farther up the mountain looking at other pullouts and spur roads until we reached the high point on the shoulder of the mountain and the end of the paved road. It might have been possible to drive up higher on the shoulder up a dirt road but there was a gate and we did not check to see if the chain was locked or just wrapped around the bars. Even so, we would have been even farther from the LZ even though we were higher. We tried one more spur road above the "C", walking up a rutted road to a building with several antennas, then climbing farther to another set of antennas. Neither place looked like a good launch. So we went back down and had lunch at the "C" then headed back south to St. George with the wind at our backs. By the time we had returned to exit 6, the wind was light and occasionally south so we drove out to the "The Usual" in Warner Canyon. The wind looked possible but by the time we had reached launch, it was blowing strongly over the back from the north. We returned to the condo for a last dinner of ham with Wally who is heading home early tomorrow.
Thursday - We woke up early to see Wally off but he must have just gone out the door and was on his way by 0630. Not to be outdone, we packed up our day gear after a quick breakfast and got on the road to Bryce Canyon National Park by 0740. The route took us through Zion Canyon and up the switchbacks and through the mile-long tunnel. After that, the route was not particularly interesting until we got onto SR 12 and headed up Red Canyon just a few miles from Bryce. It is worthwhile to note that many of the USFS and NP campgrounds were closed as were some of the private ones, as well, this late in the season. The weather during the day was comfortable in the sun but clearly it was going to
be cold/below freezing at night. We stopped at the Bryce Visitors Center and talked to the ranger about hikes and he recommended "the best 3-mile hike in the world". After picking up a couple of enameled pins and a geology book, we headed for Sunrise Point and took the Queens Garden trail down into the "canyon" among the hoodoos. The trail intersected the Navajo Loop trail and we climbed back up to Sunset Point steeply through the switchbacks of Wall Street. A short half-mile walk along the rim took us back to the car. From there we drove to the end of the road at Rainbow (9110 ft) and Yovimba Point where the ravens acted like gray jays, walking up close to us as we snacked on a pear. They didn't exactly "beg" for food, but it was clear what they wanted. They
scrambled away only when a hawk appeared overhead. On the way back we made a few other overlook stops and then hit the road for home around 1530 so that we would not have to drive in the dark. We took SR 14 over the 9910 ft pass and down Cedar Canyon to Cedar City and home via I-15. We had almost the last of the ham and some "mustgoes" from the fridge and a measly dixie cup of ice cream from the office (for their "ice cream social"). Tomorrow we will try to make it to Twin Falls; our previous plan of traveling through Nevada fell through when the Street Atlas program claimed it would be 5 hours longer to go up US 93 and US 95 to Winnemucca and north. So we are going to retrace our route back up I-15 and I-84.
After a stop for gas at Costco in Nampa and great deals on outdoor gear at Sierra Trading Post in Meridian, we drove on along I-84 past Boise, Twin Falls, and Burley (snow on Mt. Harrison), turned south to I-15 and drove over Black Pine summit (ca 5500 ft) and down past our old hang gliding sites at Brigham City and Willard Pk. We used Lisa's directions and pulled into the Harlamert's driveway around 1600. Their rented house butts up against the high foothills east of downtown Salt Lake City and we were able to take a walk along the ridge to where we could see I-80 heading up Parley's Canyon.
C.J. had talked to Alicia Wednesday and found out that the Point had been good for flying but only between 0700 and 0900, so we were up at 0615 and heading down I-215 by 7 a.m. We bumbled our way to the south side and found only a few people in the air, but by the time we had gotten set up, the wind had picked up and I was able to get a couple of 10-min toplanding flights. C.J. found that her foot hurt too much to kite her glider and had to pack up without flying. We drove over to Alicia and Rob's house to get her CD for the magazine then went back to meet Lisa in time to pick Chuck up at the airport. Instead of heading home, Chuck took us up Emigration Canyon (past the "This is the place" monument and park) to Ruth's Diner, then around the downtown district before picking up Scott at Judge HS. We spent another night with the Harlamerts after a delicious soup and bread dinner.
Friday - We left Salt Lake City about 0930 and had an uneventful cruise down I-15 with a brief stop at a tourist info place in Fillmore (in Millard County!). Past Cedar City we spotted a Zion National Park visitor center for the Kolob Canyons section of the park. It took a few miles to decide to take the time to check it out but we pulled a U-turn and went back. It was definitely worthwhile to take the time to drive the five-mile road along the red rock canyons and points. Next we checked in at ORE in St George, but our condo was not yet ready so we drove back to Washington City and hit Costco for gas and a big ham, a couple loaves of bread and other goodies. By the time we got back to ORE we were cleared to check in and used a hotel cart to move our stuff into the condo which looks out over the golf course. Ginny and Wally showed up an hour or so later and we had the ham and roasted veggies for dinner. Later, C.J. gave Wally the t-shirt quilt she had made for him.
Saturday - We talked Ginny and Wally into going back to the Kolob
Canyons with us for a hike up the middle fork of Taylor Creek . We left around 1000 and while we were getting gas at Maverik, a local pilot with a tow rig in his truck spotted us and gave us a bit of an introduction to flying in the area. The weather was perfect for a hike in the canyons - warm and sunny with a bright blue sky. We took the trail to its end at Double Arch Alcove, (photo, right) about 2.5 mi, then followed the stream course a bit farther to a big solution tube before turning back. On the way back we drove down through Toquerville, La Verkin and Hurricane to try to figure out where the launch and landing might be for the Hurricanetakeoff. We didn't find anything definitely but st least got the lay of the land. Back at the condo we had ham again (third time today including ham scramble for breakfast and ham sandwiches for lunch ).
Sunday - We took both cars to Las Vegas and south to Jean (2hr 53 min) to meet the Desert Skywalkers for a fly-in on the dry lake just north of Jean. Unfortunately the wind was strong and gusty so paraglider flying looked
very unlikely. We stuck around for two or three hours, long enough to watch one hang glider pilot take two tows behind a trailer-mounted hydraulic payout winch (photo, right). Ginny had already bailed back to Jean where she could make cell phone calls so we fit Wally and his huge pack in the Outback and caught up with her there. We split up then and C.J. and I stopped in Las Vegas to restock our rum, gin and kirsch supply at a discount liquor store. Then we drove up the Strip in stop and go traffic (mostly stop) to rubberneck the megaresorts/casinos. We gave that up after 30 minutes or more ofcreeping alon
g and headed back to I-15 near Caesars Palace. The airshow was still in progress as we passed Nellis AFB but there was no more black smoke from the earlier bombing runs. Deciding that we were ready for a lunch break, we got off the freeway and drove down into Valley of Fire state park. It was full of bright red rock much of it pockmarked with solution cavities. We had lunch near a rock with petroglyphs then drove around a scenic loop and on out of the park as it began to get dark (In PST darkness here at this time of the year is at 1700!). We made it back to the condo by 1930 or so with only a stop to get out some water and buy a postcard in Mesquite, a casino town just on the Nevada border with Arizona.Monday - We were hoping for an early start for hiking in Zion but Ginny had had a bad night and didn't get much sleep. Around 1145 or so we got on the road and headed to Zion Canyon via Hurricane, La Verkin and Springdale. We made a stop at the visitor center and decided on the Angels Landing hike which had a gain of 1500 ft in 2 miles. Ginny decided that she didn't want to do a strenuous hike and elected to stay along the Virgin River near the Grotto trailhead. Wally, C.J. and I started along the sandy trail following the river upstream. The trail climbed gradually at first and we could not see how we were going to gain all that elevation because the cliffs appeared to block our way. Only as we got closer could we see that the trail switchbacked up the face on retaining walls built of the same red sandstone as the cliff walls. As we reached the vertical headwall, a slot appeared and we entered a narrow hanging valley known as Refrigerator Canyon. At the end of the almost flat slope of the canyon we started up the cunningly contrived series of twenty-one short switchbacks known as Walter's
Wiggles for a former park superintendent. At the top of the Wiggles is Scouts Lookout and the last level resting place before the steep climb to Angels Landing. We stopped for lunch and a visit to the composting toilets before tackling the first segment of the steep "trail" to thesummit of the Landing. I went only a little ways beyond the first bump; even with handrails made of thick chains, it was nervewracking to negotiate the narrow ledge made up of sloping slabs of red sandstone. We returned to the car down the many switchbacks of the mostly paved (!) trail meeting Ginny on the way who had been photographing what she thought were moose. Back at the car we drove up to the end of the canyon and back looking for moose along the river. As we got almost backto Grotto, we saw some mule deer including a big buck with full antlers. These were what Ginny had been stalking and photographing and we thought that they might have been elk (but a ranger later told us that there were no moose or elk in the park). On the way out of the park we passed several groups of photographers who were taking advantage of the sunset light to shoot the colorful canyon walls. We stopped at the gate and tried our hand at doing the same. We used up enough time that when we were out of the canyon, the sun had set and did not shine in our eyes during the drive home to the condo.
Tuesday - C.J. and I got up before 0700 to say goodbye to Ginny who was taking a flight home from Las Vegas. Wally was running the shuttle and hoped to be back by noon so we could go do something with the rest of the day. Around 1100 or so I decided to try the new GPS-Street Atlas combination to find the launch near Warner Canyon that the locals call "The Usual". It worked fairly well for helping me keep track of where I was but I also needed the gazetteer and the description of how to find it from the local we had talked to on Saturday. The road to launch was pretty steep and rocky but the Outback made it up just fine. I left a streamer and drove down to the LZ (basically the road below) and tied one there also. Wally was already back when I got home after a stop at Smiths for dinner supplies so we had lunch and then, with phoned directions from Jeff O'Brien, we headed off to find and fly the launch on the Hurricane Cliffs just south of Molly's Nipple. The directions were pretty good and the road was okay except for one
steep, rutted section that really needed 4WD or, at least, Wally's driving skill. The wind was blowing right in, a bit light but it seemed to be getting stronger so the plan was for C.J. and Wally to launch and, if they could, topland so I could fly. Alas, the wind velocity decreased and they only had 8-minute flights to a field below while I drove down, about a 35-min trip. After a dinner of ham (again!) in macaroni and cheese, we discussed the possibility of flying Cedar Mtn just outside of Cedar City tomorrow. Wally was concerned about the long reach out to a field and C.J. checked the forecast to find that the winds are supposed to be over the back. We'll check in the morning.Wednesday - After breakfast, Wally called Thomas, a local instructor, and asked about flying today. He recommended Cedar City and gave Wally directions to launch - sort of. We took both cars so that we could all fly and still retrieve. At Cedar City we found the overgrown field behind a strip mall containing Albertsons and Staples and left Wally's car there. Because it was only 1030 or so and the launch side of the mountain was not yet in the sun, we decided to drive the 23 miles up to Cedar Breaks National Monument and then come back later when the sun's heating had set up some convective winds. On the way up I-15 to Cedar City we had encountered strong north winds but there was little or no wind in the town itself. Cedar Breaks was operating (to use the term loosely) on its winter schedule so no fees were being collected and all the rest rooms and the visitor center were closed. We stopped at a few overlooks and also hiked the one-mile Alpine Pond loop. The views were spectacular with the colorful rocks set off by the new snow. At an elevation of over 10,000 ft, winter had already arrived. It was after noon when we started down from Cedar Breaks and we spent the next couple of hours driving and walking around Cedar Mountain trying to figure out where the launch might be. The "C" was easy to find - right on the paved Right Hand Canyon Road, but there did not seem to be a clear area to launch below the guardrails of the overlook and it looked like a long glide out to the LZ. We drove farther up the mountain looking at other pullouts and spur roads until we reached the high point on the shoulder of the mountain and the end of the paved road. It might have been possible to drive up higher on the shoulder up a dirt road but there was a gate and we did not check to see if the chain was locked or just wrapped around the bars. Even so, we would have been even farther from the LZ even though we were higher. We tried one more spur road above the "C", walking up a rutted road to a building with several antennas, then climbing farther to another set of antennas. Neither place looked like a good launch. So we went back down and had lunch at the "C" then headed back south to St. George with the wind at our backs. By the time we had returned to exit 6, the wind was light and occasionally south so we drove out to the "The Usual" in Warner Canyon. The wind looked possible but by the time we had reached launch, it was blowing strongly over the back from the north. We returned to the condo for a last dinner of ham with Wally who is heading home early tomorrow.
Thursday - We woke up early to see Wally off but he must have just gone out the door and was on his way by 0630. Not to be outdone, we packed up our day gear after a quick breakfast and got on the road to Bryce Canyon National Park by 0740. The route took us through Zion Canyon and up the switchbacks and through the mile-long tunnel. After that, the route was not particularly interesting until we got onto SR 12 and headed up Red Canyon just a few miles from Bryce. It is worthwhile to note that many of the USFS and NP campgrounds were closed as were some of the private ones, as well, this late in the season. The weather during the day was comfortable in the sun but clearly it was going to
be cold/below freezing at night. We stopped at the Bryce Visitors Center and talked to the ranger about hikes and he recommended "the best 3-mile hike in the world". After picking up a couple of enameled pins and a geology book, we headed for Sunrise Point and took the Queens Garden trail down into the "canyon" among the hoodoos. The trail intersected the Navajo Loop trail and we climbed back up to Sunset Point steeply through the switchbacks of Wall Street. A short half-mile walk along the rim took us back to the car. From there we drove to the end of the road at Rainbow (9110 ft) and Yovimba Point where the ravens acted like gray jays, walking up close to us as we snacked on a pear. They didn't exactly "beg" for food, but it was clear what they wanted. Theyscrambled away only when a hawk appeared overhead. On the way back we made a few other overlook stops and then hit the road for home around 1530 so that we would not have to drive in the dark. We took SR 14 over the 9910 ft pass and down Cedar Canyon to Cedar City and home via I-15. We had almost the last of the ham and some "mustgoes" from the fridge and a measly dixie cup of ice cream from the office (for their "ice cream social"). Tomorrow we will try to make it to Twin Falls; our previous plan of traveling through Nevada fell through when the Street Atlas program claimed it would be 5 hours longer to go up US 93 and US 95 to Winnemucca and north. So we are going to retrace our route back up I-15 and I-84.
Friday – Up at 0600, we were on the road by 0740 having had a good breakfast, packed up and turned in our keys. We made a quick stop at the Kolob Canyons visitor center to drop off our recyclables since we found no recycling bins in St. George. We stopped again at Fillmore to use the rest room and see how the lady was doing with her jigsaw puzzle (she wasn’t finished with the one she had started last Friday). We pushed back our lunch time so that we could grab a Costco hot dog when we stopped for gas in
Saturday - It wasn't raining when we left at 0730 but we would be driving through occasional showers most of the way home almost until we reached North Bend. We made the required stops at Sierra Trading Post and Costco in the Boise-Nampa-Caldwell area and then stopped for gas one more time at the newly-moved Costco in Union Gap. Other than that and a treat stop at Starbucks in the Tri-Cities, it was mostly a pedal-to-the-metal all the way home. We were surprised to get in just at 1700 - plenty of time to unload and warm up the house before crashing in our own bed.
Directions to hurricane Launch (Molly'sNipple):
Here are the directions that Jeff O'Brien gave me:
Take SR 59 E from Hurricane about 3 miles. At milepost 19 (on left side of road) turn R onto a dirt road and go 3.3 miles. Turn R and go 0.3 miles. Turn R, continue about 2.1 miles and turn R again. Pass thru a gate and continue up hill around a ridge. At some point the road becomes very rough as it climbs steeply for a short distance. 4WD and high clearance are needed just on the one short stretch. It's about 0.5 mi to launch from here. Launch is a clearing south of Molly's Nipple at N 37* 07.436' W 113* 17.858'. We landed in a field across the road and beyond the powerlines from launch and the owners came by and said they were glad we chose to land in their field (!) It is at approximately N 37* 07.607 W 113* 18.665'
Directions to "The Usual" near St George:
From I-15 Exit 6, go E on Bluff Road which becomes Riverside. Turn R on River then take a left at the next light (Stakefarm Rd, now called 1450). At the end of the road turn R and then take the next left (may be 1650 or 1580). Take the next-to-last right and follow that through a 90 degree left and a 90 degree right. Soon afterwards, you will see three houses on the right. Take a left on a gravel road across from the houses and proceed up hill 0.5 mi. Just after crossing a cattleguard, turn into an area used for target practice and stay to the right dropping down and crossing a wash, then up steeply on gravel and slickrock to an obvious launch. N 37.04762 * W 113.47593* The LZ, if conditions are not toplandable, is anywhere out front or on the gravel road.
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