UTB: Another Windy Day at South Temple Mountain Wash

UTB: Utah Boondocking.

Another very windy day here, even had to reposition Uma, the URRV, to point her nose into the wind as it shifted from coming out of the South yesterday to out of the West today.  This meant Uma was broadside to the wind and that was a lot of rocking until I moved her.

The winds had made for clear viewing of nearby

Wild Horse Butte

While the light was still good due to the sun being not too high in the sky, I rode off on Scarlett to check out some of the sights along Temple Mountain Wash Road.  Temperatures were in the high 40s with a high of only 52 degrees Fahrenheit so I bundled up warmly.

The main road which apparently will connect with I-70 29 hard ridden miles later, winds its way up to several high plateau areas, one of which proved a nice spot to pose Scarlett.

 Highest point is Mt Ellen Peak

 The leftmost peak is Bull Mountain

The pyramid shaped hill draws the eye...

Making my way back to the main parking lot area for Temple Mountain Wash, I took the road posted as "Behind the Reef".  Not a bad dirt road which shortly leads one to a nice view of the backside of the San Rafael Reef or Swell.

 The back side of the reef

 A view of Temple Mountain in the morning sunlight

Just north of the main parking lot for Temple Mountain

Headed back to my camp site, I chanced to spy something quite unexpected in the RV parking lot for South Temple Mountain Wash:

 It's like the darn things are popping up everywhere!

The rig's owner didn't come out of the travel trailer or perhaps no one was home.  

Rest of the day was just work, working on the balky starter button, some minor repairs on Scarlett and with a break to reposition the URRV so the wind would hit her nose, not her side:

I rode out again shortly after 6PM, wanting to explore a road heading north along the San Rafael Swell that I'd seen some cagers driving on earlier in the week.  Turns out its a relatively good dirt road leading to some more dispersed camp sites and a delightful narrow canyon road that I hope to explore more tomorrow.

 An old river bed, this dirt road had many cool rock formations

 High rock walls with water eroded rock formations galore

 I turned around at this point, trail conditions got "gnarly"
and I was running out of daylight

Although I'd entered this narrow canyon road via a steep dirt trail I'd found off a campsite, turns out there's a much easier entrance further from said campsite.  In fact, I saw four cagers wandering about the trail, seeking places to camp I suppose.

Leaving the "young folk" to their camping business; I returned to the main parking lot area for Temple Mountain Wash and again took the Back of the Reef road seeking a good sunset watching spot.

I didn't find this sunset spot, and the sunset itself was nothing to write home about but it did provide some Golden Hour lighting for the below pics:

 Temple Mountain near Sunset

 Back side of the Reef near Sunset

Got back to Uma before dark, fixed dinner and enjoyed the fact the winds which had been blowing all day had finally settled down.  No more rocking RV tonight I hope.

Ending this post with a sad note, I just read online that Barbara Bush, a truly stellar First Lady, had passed away today.  My condolences to her family.