Duck Creek, UT - up the canyon from Cedar City. We were VERY glad to finally get here - after being on the trail for 10 hours. What no one told us is that this little town closes and rolls up the sidewalks at 6 p.m. ~ and we didn't get there until 7:30!! We couldn't even get a drink of soda from a machine ... or gas - or ANYTHING!!! For dinner that night and breakfast the next morning we had to eat the snacks and whatever we had on the quads ... good thing we had something with us!! Oh well, we saved money, right?
The guys are getting things ready to go ... it is 7 a.m. This is the 'quaint' little cabin we were able to rent. Ironically ... this is the same place we rented about 12 years ago - we came to Duck Creek to take a family picture for our Christmas card ... and Mike and Jodi met us there ... they weren't married yet. What do they say ... History repeats itself? Well, it did for us, and we were grateful to be able to stay,
Inside our cute little cabin - do we look rested? (The picture 'lies', if we do ... it was NOT a good nights sleep, but at least we got to stretch out and rest a bit)
As we left Duck Creek we were up high and rode along meadows and fairly flat land with great roads/trails for several miles.
The was one of our pit stops (to check the maps and determine which road we were to travel) - you can see the great roads we were on.
Mammoth Caves - which were created in the lava flow era ... these were their vent tubes. We didn't go down inside them - we were content just to look at them from on top. Interesting!
This just shows how high we were - no other mountains - and the dusty trail.(That is Dennis coming)
A beautiful creek that flowed under the road. We could all picture ourselves resting there with our fishing poles.
One thing we failed to get a picture of was where we ate lunch. Now remember ~ we didn't have anything except snacks for dinner - and it was a granola bar breakfast, so LUNCH was high on our list ... and we were excited to find a place to eat. We gassed our machines in Hatch, UT (along highway 89) and asked a young man at the station where we could eat ... he recommended The Adobe just up the road. When we got there it was closed (it was 10:40 a.m.) We learned it would open at 11 - so we gladly waited. We ALL agreed we would return ... we aren't sure if it was fantastic food, or we were starving ... but it hit the spot!!
As we got up towards the top - we could see the red rock and soil.
I stopped to take a picture of the valley - but some in our group weren't too happy with me -- as we were on a bit of a hill. (I guess it depends on what 'heights' do to you - where you feel comfortable stopping - this was OK to me!!)
What goes up must come down --- and down we came - to the beautiful and HUGE Tropic Reservoir. We were able to ride along it for several miles. From here we had a hard time trying to find the right road to take us over to Ruby's Inn. The maps were not clear AT ALL - and we even stopped some US Forrest Service young ladies ... who knew even LESS than we did. (Dennis was quite frustrated with it all - and even reported it to their office in Panguitch. Aren't they supposed to be helpful? Maybe they were new to the area??) We finally got to Ruby's Inn - and found our hotel. The sign age of the roads and the maps did NOT agree ... we learned that the STATE and FEDERAL agencies do NOT communicate, and they should ... people depend on them, and they let us down. We MADE it - but not because their MAPS!
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