Show Missouri Family l Repeats V Visit it Reports On Local Attractions In 1963 the Tom were fishing on Brush Creek when t if 8 thi 1 g of a 0 family of tour tour- tourists tourists from Missouri The Edwin C Ellis family had heard about the fabulous the path the off beaten path country of If the Uintah Basin and the Ilig 1 tintas so they extended a va- va vacation Vacation cation to Estes Park to include this area They were so entranced by bythe bythe the wonderful scenery and the untouched areas that they have returned several times to this part of the country Their ten day vacation into the this summer was just as exciting and full of adventure as ever and the edi tor of the Daily of Warrens Warrensburg burg Missouri ask e d Mrs Ellis to write about it for l his s paper Below are excerpts from the story she wrote on her pleasant journey into the land of the Un Uin tas BY SHIRLEY ELLIS Ashley National Forest The Uinta Mountains W e had h a d never heard of either of them until the summer summer of 63 when a friend overheard our remarks about plans for our first western trip Our only idea at that time had been to go to Estes Park where I had worked once for a summer during the war take another look at Longs Long's Peak which I had climbed and take the children over the Tra i I 1 Ridge Road But you'll find it nothing but people he protested Why dont don't you drive on another half Cay and get off of the track Go on to Vernal Utah lie He had bad spent summers there Your family would love that region and if you camp in Ash Icy ley Forest youre you're apt pt to be the only ones in the whole camp camp except maybe for weekends week I PIoneers Set Out So with the enthusiasm and optimism of latter day pioneers we set out to conquer the West Our covered wagon was an aging motor car covered with a agreen agreen green tent and a car top carS car rice rier But unlike the pioneer we went armed with maps in I a geologic data sug for field trips and even the names of some friendly Indians to look up Now after a full year of bor bor- bor borIng ing our friends with the merits of Vernal Utah as a vacation spot and dreaming our private dreams of more excitement and adventure we headed once more for Ashley Forest and the high Our trip this year was to in elude the Badlands and Black lUlls Hills of South Dakota and the state of Wyoming entering our corner of utah from the north Should we camp one more night in Wyoming or keep go go- going ing until we reached Utah and home no matter how late it got One glance at the last available campground so wind swept so chilly so barren of trees and we kept on driving stopping only long enough to tostock tostock stock the grub box Land of MemorIes And now after so many hun bun of miles in strange terri tern tory we were on highways wed we'd been on before Almost lately across the border into utah we were in the Uinta Mountains and and scenic Sheep Creek Canyon pronounce it Sheep Crick There was the narrow gravel road we with the mountain stream singing beside it the cliffs on each side growing higher and andl l higher gher and suddenly the car be gins to climb Breathlessly we back at the narrow gor peer nervously over the edge of the road to see the tops of trees on the precipitous slope and the driver instinctive I 1 y hugs the innermost part of the road hoping no one else is corn com lag ing down the mountain to crowd us u over to the edge How splendid are the colors in the waning light how ex citing to climb so high so rapid rapid- rapidly ly Iv and to look Ionic down to towe Y we were just a moment ago Thank goodness permission has been refused to blast a wider road through Sheep Creek Can you yon The new super highway will bypass it off in some other direction Let the speedy in in- in intense tense business world travel the theother theother other route let the tourist with eyes agape have Sheep Creek Canyon with all its spectacular beauty Into Moonlit Forest I And now the trees of Ashley Forest close in around us and we pull onto a modern super superhighway l highway stretching its ribbon ribon like way down through t t ii h e trees Darkness has fallen but theres there's a full moon overhead and the aspen and pine trees stand out in silhouette Riding all alone through a forest on a moonlight night is a rich ex ex- ex if ever a forest forestI seems enchanted its it's then On and on en we drove through the I endless lane of trees with no sound but the quiet hum or of our ourI motor No one in the car spoke I a word to break the magic spell Now we were passing the road to Flaming Gorge Reser Reser- Voir where Lady Bird had been the day ay before now past the sign to Diamond Mountain over the last hill and around the thelast thelast last bend before we turned off on the little bumpy gravel road that would take us to Ir o 0 n Springs Campground Did we remember the road Every turn and every curve were familiar and a night hawk flew up from the roadbed to greet us while a curious deer and a couple of range cattle glanced non non-comito tally in our direction Down the hill bill around the bend through the th park of aspen and junipers past Dry Lake and then over the crest of the last hill Would there be lights at Iron Springs Would someone else be there We peered intently into the dark dark- darkness ness All was dark all aU was still We were home At Home Base Camp What a shock to climb out of the warm car arid and feel the first blast of cold night air We had forgotten how bow cold it could be beat beat at this altitude and putting up the tent in the darkness on slightly sloping ground with the wind tearing the canvas from your benumbed fingers and fumbling t erect cots and install duffel bags while your teeth chattered with the cold were experiences more fun to talk about than endure but all was wa's was accomplished and w we e crawled gratefully into o 0 u r sleeping bags so laden with layers of clothing as to resemble ble Polar Bears intent on l hiber ber- ber nation For the days we were I at home at Iron Springs which we used as one would a base camp expanding out in Ia all dl di during the day and re re- re returning turning at night The tempera tempera- temperatures tures even our friend the sheepherder said they were un un- un seasonal hovered in the low each night we were there with brilliant sun and intensely blue skies overhead during the days One of the never ending de lights was driving the 27 miles from camp to the town of Ver Ver- Ver Veral al and back again for on that magnificent l highway one will drive through one billion years of geologic time through seen seen- ery as beautiful as any in the West Each or of the geologic per per- lods and formations is carefully labelled to educate the passerby The colors were magnificent Now the brick red of the Meno Meno- kopi Formation the malted milk of the Con the sienna of the Navajo Sandstone the gray of the Entrada Then the Period with the rich purple of the Morrison Formation i n which dinosaur remains are a r e found on through the pale yellow of the Dakota the deep gray of the Mowry Shale and the yellow of the Frontier For For- Formation mation At one point one could stop the car and look down on years of time in a mag panorama descending into the Uintah Basin in which sprawls the town of Vernal We saw the gorges the canyons and the mountains of this colorful area at all times of the day and andin andin in moonlight Once as if there weren't color enough nature provided us with a rainbow With each trip there were for one hadn't noticed be be- be before fore Favorite of all were the five battleships in flaming red one could almost see the guns on the turrets sailing for forever onward in the equally red sea around them At one one could see a natural amphitheater fully large enough for the players and an audience but absolutely inaccessible by natures nature's mandate On on one side during a 10 mile downgrade there stretches what looks for aU all the world like the Ule multiple folds of a peasant skirt shirt with rows of brilliant stripes around e MARBLE PORTRAIT Don DOli A president of the World Fellowship of Artists admires a unique que portrait of the late President JoInt Job F ArtIst IL B Don DoD created It in III marble and aDd oiL the hem And then there was the n that resembled a arow arow row pf of dinosaurs walking single file their great curved scales rising on each spine like the stegosaurus Ever go prospecting for giz giz- giz gizzard zard stones Dr of f the Utah Field Hou house e of Naturi Natural Natural i al Science gave us directions as asI asto asto to where to find Morrison For For- Formation Formation I mation that would be accessible i for it is in this format ion I o n that the remains of dinosaurs are found Gizzard stones or were apparently in- in by these mighty creature to grind their food somewhat in inthe Inthe the same manner as chickens use sand and gravel Our way led many miles over the deso deso- deso desolate late sunny badlands o a vcr v e r abrupt little hills and down steep ravines FInally we found the place and identified the pun pur pIe striation that was the Mor- Mor Morrison rison nison Early Luck Who would find the first gas gas- It was a scramble out of the car on with our hats grab the specimen bags and andrace andrace race up the stony bank And there one lay so smooth so glossy so pleasant to the touch They can be found in all sizes recognizable by their high gloss and smoothly worn sides All too often however will be broken or lodged too securely in a boulder to remove but we searched searched up and down gui gul- gullies lies and filled our bags with all the specimens we co u 1 d carry For me the find of the day was my with a very recognizable fossil in it As a it was a sorry brok- brok broken broken en specimen but with the part part- partly ly fossil so clearly vis- vis visible visible ible it was a treasure To think the dinosaur so long extinct ingested a stone that already was so old as to have a fossil formation in it it The magnitude of the time involved leaves my brain bewildered We were a ahot ahot hot tired outfit as we drove the many miles back to camp but who has more fun than gizzard stone prospectors A Large CollectIon Another wonderful afternoon we drove to Virtus and nd Sadie McConkie's ranch up Dry Fork Canyon where Indian pete petr o 0 glyphs are etched in the moun- moun mountain tain tam side and where we had been invited to hunt Indian ar- ar arrowheads on Cedar Ridge if we ever came that way again Sadie is a ranch woman In ev- ev evry every ery ry available shed lean to on every fence post and piled in heaps under the destructive sky she has an accumulation of an- an antiques antiques that would fill a museum many times over Her lIer items range from fabulous bus lous rock collections Indian ar ar- ar artifacts including dozens 0 f manos and nd metates frontier gear bits and pieces of buildings where l historical events too t 0 0 k place old guns old clothes old everything And for the price of one dollar per car she will take you on an animated tour of everything Sadie greet ed us warmly as old friends and hurried us on our way to Cedar Ridge for our afternoon in Indian country Yes we found the place but very few treasures But what fun to scramble up those inter inter- interesting Interesting esting sloping rock formations see the flora and fauna at close and come pleased with an afternoons afternoon's fun We returned to the ranch house to show Sadie our bits and pieces and then at her insistence went to her ller orchard to pick boxes of apricots and plums so wonder wonder- wonderfully fully succulent and sweet and absolutely unblemished by in In- In Insects sects One of her a adopted Ute Indian sons toddled along with us and eyed us with his beady black eyes It had been a wonderful day dayl To A Ghost Town We wanted to see a ghost town I Only a short way north of Iron Springs there exists a alon along I lon long abandoned copper ml mi n a e settlement Parson City and if one followed the trail long enough one would even find the copper mines actively mined from 30 to 50 years ago We drove along the ancient road until it narrowed to a boulder strewn path and began to hike The pine woods were cool and quiet with occasional birds and some beautiful flowers in bloom but hiking at that altitude is a slow process so short of breath does one become Parson City was interesting and one log cabin particularly caught the artists artist's eye and my husband sat down to sketch while the rest of us continued on up the trail to the mines We found several their shafts de do- do and filled up for the most part and some encased in log cabin enclosures At one we found an ancient wind lass used to haul up the ore and with a metal band still clinging This treasure we haul haul- hauled ed home big and bulky as it was along with some other bits of metal nearby and a few chunks of rock distinctly laced with copper ore in green streaks On top of the mountain we could look down on Iron Springs so far below so green and pret- pret pretty pretty ty To A Monument One of the fascinating side I trips in this area is a visit to the Dinosaur National Monument I There inside an ultra modern building one can watch the ac- ac actual actual excavation of an r e mountain side of dinosaur fos fos- fos ails sils and hear short lectures by bythe bythe the Monument personnel In a conversation with Dr Unter Unter- mann at the Museum in Vernal he said the authorities had h a d turned their attention to one con cor ncr ner of the area inside the build build- lug ing not expecting it to be worth much only to find it the richest deposit of dinosaur remains of alII all Fossil hunting is a most reo re- rewarding warding activity and we hun hur ned ried down the mountain very early one morning in order to tomake tomake make the mile round trip to Bonanza and the Green River Riven shale beds where there are fos fos- fos fossil sil Imprints ts deposited in tertiary fresh water lakes 50 mill mu 1 ion i o n years ago Armed with geology picks maps fixative to preserve the finds head scarves to keep the sand fleas out of ones one's ears and hats for protection from the relentless sun we set out over the endless miles of badlands finally reaching the astonishing ng oasis of lovely homes green plots of grass and giant macl n ery of the American Gilsonite Co which comprises the town of Bonanza and on to the banks of the Green River There in an immense shale bed we hacked and prodded pi ked and separated dozens of layers of shale to our hearts heart's content finding a fine leaf specimen about once in every 10 minutes Though the leaves were very interesting and beautiful we hope some day to be lucky enough to find an insect or fish fossil Carefully we stacked our finds in their special cases pain pain- painting ting flog the imprints with fixative before the least little bit of dust could cover the fine lines and hauled them home with as much care care and concern as if we had actually contributed some miss miss- missing ing link in prehistoric ture To Be |