Miner's Mountain

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Janet had mentioned the Bees-Lewis Road just outside Torrey to the east a couple of times recently so it was time to go explore, we loaded up the Tundra with Whip, Louise, Eddd, Janet and I and headed out for a quick drive. I had been down the road once before but it seemed to end at a gate to a quarry, updated information told us that there was more to be found and after a quick tour around the quarry we took the right fork just after the gate. We immediately climbed onto a ridge overlooking highway 12 with spectacular views of Thousand Lake Mountain across the Torrey cliffs to the north, the Fremont Valley to the west and Boulder Mountain to the south.

Thousand Lake Mountain over the Torrey Cliffs.

Highway 12 Headed Up Towards Boulder Mountain

Boulder Mountain and the Cockscomb (or Stegosaurus)

From here the road turned towards Capitol Reef and climbed over the top of Miner's Mountain so that we could see the cliffs of Capitol Reef next to highway 24.

Chimney Rock

Boulder Mountain and the Cockscomb form Miner's Summit ridge.

The road ends at the ridge so we got out for a quick hike around, one of Janet's requirements for a truck ride.


The Tundra patiently waiting for the next adventure.

It's been a great spring for flowers after the very snowy winter.

From the summit we headed south into a wash which we followed for a while until we reached a step that the Tundra couldn't handle, we could probably have gone to one side of it but decided that was far enough for the day. Just below the step was evidence of a fearsome beast...

Dinosaur Skull?

Janet's goat imitations require her to climb to the highest spot around, here she is showing off the BMWST Torrey XIX T-shirt, another of Whip's masterpieces.

The Tundra grumbled that it could easily take that little step!

All of the pictures in this post were taken with my Canon 60mm macro lens, it does pretty well with the landscapes!  I decided to use it as a macro lens as well.
Claret Cup Cactus

This is the full resolution picture cropped down. Quite a versatile lens.

A few more macro shots of tiny rock formations.



From there we reversed our route and headed to dinner at the Rim Rock.
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