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Utah
Page one
These are a few pics from my ATV adventure in Utah, August
2001. If you find ATV's or vacation pics grindingly boring,
go somewhere else. There are seven
pages, each with about ten pics apiece, each pic about 40k in size. If you are
using dial-up networking and have the intestinal fortitude to wait it out, each
page should take about a minute to load. If you are riding the fat data pipe
(DSL or equivalent) you have no worries.
After having spent a week at Zion National Park,
I went to a small town called Marysvale (Location
Map), which is south of I-70 on hwy 89. Marysvale is in a small valley between
two mountain ranges, and has been the locus of a booming mining industry in
the past. The mining industry is essentially gone now (though I did find active
claims, I never did find any commercial mining in progress), and the town is
about all that is left. Utah as a whole is very ATV friendly, and my plan was
to ride some of the Paiute ATV trail system, a 300 mile trail system that circles
through the Fishlake National Forest. It is legal to take your ATV (Quad, 3-wheeler,
whatever) on the paved roads in the towns adjacent to the trail, and it wasn't
uncommon to see more ATV's lined up in front of the Cafe than autos. Marysvale
is right in the heart of the Paiute ATV trail, which is a 300-mile circular
trail put into place by the State of Utah. It winds through the mountains around
Marysvale, up towards Richfield, and down to Junction. There appears to be an
endless amount of side trails and roads to explore as well, and it's all legal
to do so. I'm a big fan of motorcycles, and I saw quite a few that were trail
riding, but the vast majority of off-roaders were on 4-wheelers. My two ATV's
are Yamaha Warriors, 350 cc single cylinder electric-start 2-wheel drive machines.
I've had them in the desert with paddles, and now into the forest with racks
and knobbies. They seem to go just about everywhere without complaint, and I've
had excellent service from them both.
This behemoth is my RV rig. The truck is a 1989 F-350 one-ton crew cab 4x4
powered by a 7.3 liter International diesel engine. The only modifications are
a Banks Turbo on the engine (which makes a BIG difference!), aftermarket rims
with 33" tires, and dual front shocks. The trailer is a 1973 streamline, which
weighs in at 9820 pounds empty, and the Lord only knows how much with all my
stuff in it. The racks on the bed of the truck allow me to store stuff in the
bed (generator, firewood, tools, gas, etc) and still carry the quads in decent
fashion. They have ramps that telescope out and you literally drive on and off
the racks. Made by
Highrider
in Oregon, I'm very pleased with everything except their weight - they add 500
lbs to the truck. Loaded mileage varis between 9.1 and 10.8 mpg.
This is Marysvale. A small rural former mining town, now accepting ATV riders
who come to ride the Paiute ATV trail as a source of revenue. Most folks seemed
okay with the ATV's, some were rather indifferent. I stayed at
Liz & Charlie's RV Park (a great place), and was told by the owners that
the main source of the few problems are people that would get out of control
and do something stupid (like riding 50 mph on the main highway instead of sticking
to the side roads of town). I found that I could ride just about any where near
the town without any problems, and once you were in the trail system proper,
you could ride anywhere you pleased. I was told that the forest service frowned
on people trail blazing their own trail, which seemed ridiculous to want to
do anyway because there was so much to see on the established trails.
The Rainbow Mine
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The second day I arrived I rode up a nondescript trail on the West side of
town which ended at an open gate. It had been recently opened, according to
the tracks through it. I went on through hoping I wouldn't incur the wrath of
some property owner, and after five minutes came up on some quads at the side
of the trail near a mine. Several people were nearby, as were the ATV's they
had ridden up on. One promptly challenged me, and I met Mr. Rollo F. Peterson
- the property owner. I braced myself, and explained and that the gate had been
open. Mr. Peterson pretty much shrugged it off, and we began to talk. I learned
he had lived in Utah most of his life, and had worked in the local mines since
the fifties. He related that this particular mine was in operation as recently
as the 70's, and while most mines in the area made tremendous profits for the
miners, this one had had over a million dollars put into it and never showed
a profit. I looked inside the entrance, below, and found it almost completely
collapsed around the air ducts and so forth. Clear water flowed out of what
remained of an opening. Mr. Peterson told me the water coming out of it was
normal for most mines, and that most of the horizontal shafts in the area were
put in with a 1-2 degree elevation so that the water wouldn't pool up.
Mr. Peterson told me a couple of stories of his mining days,
one involving a 50' underground fall into a shaft. Injured, he lay in the darkness
hearing voices of other miners above. Apparently nobody was willing to risk
an immediate descent to his location, until his son-in-law arrived and immediately
descended the shaft and rescued him. He then looked at me and grinned, "It wasn't
that he was braver than anybody else, it was the fact that my daughter would
have killed him if he hadn't come down to get me!"
This is the entrance to the Rainbow Mine. The entrance has collapsed around
the air ducts and high-pressure lines that went into the tunnel, and water ran
freely out of what was left of the opening. The entrance was in a "building"
of sorts (see above photo), and to the left of the entrance were large (six
foot tall!) compressors that were used to pump air into the mine for ventilation
and to drive pneumatic equipment.
After talking to Mr. Pederson for some time, I asked if I could continue
further up the trail and explore more of this historic mining area. He paused,
sizing me up, then agreed while cautioning me to lock the gate after myself
on the way out. I thought nothing of it at the time, but I later found out that
he did not let ATV riders onto his property at all (imagine the liability if
somebody falls down a mineshaft). This was evident since there were no recent
tracks on the trails anywhere above the Rainbow Mine. Some of the roads were
all but washed out, especially when they ran near tailings.
I rode on up the mountain, and found many more mines, mills, and a
lot of equipment. Some of the mines were pretty unsafe looking, some looked
to be in good shape. I found quite a few or mills areas that, except for the
dust and decay, looked as though they were missing only the miners. There were
quite a few "shops" too, that still had equipment and tools laid out as though
the miners had just walked away from whatever they were working on. I spent
the afternoon up there poking around the old buildings, walking the ore cart
rails, and enjoying the solitude. I had lunch at one of the old mills, just
sitting and listening to the wind in the trees as I munched my sandwich.
"This was truly a great welcome to Utah," I thought.
The view was spectacular.
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