Our trip to Duck Creek

Here is a link to a few of our best pictures of the trip.

We had planned on leaving Wednesday morning for Duck Creek Utah.  A couple of people at work had told me it's a real nice place with a lot of ATV trails and I've never been there.  It's high up in the mountains close to Cedar Breaks National Monument. and Brian Head Ski Resort.  Things didn't go exactly as planned to begin with.  Marilyn got called to an emergency family meeting to straighten out her parent's trust that morning.  She didn't get home until afternoon.  That's OK though because when I was about to load the ATVs on the trailer, I found it had a flat tire I had to go get fixed. I put the spare on (never before used) and just put the fixed tire as the spare.  Well, we were finally off but just after Santiquin the brand new, never used spare (same as the other tires...no difference) decided to bubble up and come apart on the inside.  So...on the side of the freeway I changed the tire again. I was getting a little frustrated about the start of our trip about then.  Luckily, the rest of the trip went smoothly.  We checked into our lodge/motel and settled in for a few days of fun.  Duck Creek is a very wooded (mostly pine) area about 9000 feet in elevation.  We rode some really nice trails.  A couple of the highlights were going out to "Strawberry Point" where you can stand on the top of some cliffs and look out over to other pink cliffs, very much like Bryce Canyon.  After we left there, we went down a VERY rocky and steep trail/road and quite a way down we came across an old couple (much older than us) in a little touring car trying to go down the same trail!  The guy was out walking trying to see where it went.  He said he'd scraped bottom quite a few times on the way down.  He was looking for Strawberry Point (which I told him he had missed).   He said he knew what he was doing, was fine, and had driven roads like that many times.  I shrugged and told him good luck and I still wonder if they made it out of there.

The weather was fantastic.  A high of 72 degrees every day.   All that was needed was a sweatshirt to begin the day with.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.

The Duck Creek area is very volcanic with a lot of lava fields.  A big lake up there drains into a big lava sink hole which ends up coming out in the middle of the pink cliffs.  It's called Cascade Falls and we rode then hiked the trail over to where it comes out of the cliffs. It's really hard to take a picture of it but we tried.   There are a few caves in the area made from lava tubes.  We went to one called Ice Cave.  It has ice in it all year round.  We climbed down into the entrance and the floor of the cave is frozen ice.   Dunno why it's so cold in there all year.  A natural freezer/fridge.    We rode around some beautiful canyons and just stopped multiple times to take in the sights and sounds of nature in the trees next to a stream, etc.  This morning (Saturday) we packed up and drove through Cedar Breaks (a dissapointment).  We stopped in Beaver, of course, for a couple of bags of squeeky cheese.  We then stopped at Cove Fort which we've never done before...pretty cool and interesting.  I recommend it.  We then stopped to see Grandma at the care center....not very fun....she was having problems. Anyway..we're home now.   Here are a couple of pictures for Buff since she can't see them on picasa.