February 12 -- A 150-Mile Drive To Get Pies...

Well, more than just getting a pie happened on Wednesday, but that post title is an attention-grabber... I wanted to give my legs a rest after hiking morning and afternoon the day before, so I decided on a road trip up to the area in Utah just west of St. George. I took Interstate 15 northeast to Mesquite, stopped off at the Wal-Mart there for a few things for RV living, then took County Road 91 (Old Highway 91 according to my Benchmark Utah map guide) north at Littlefield. The country along the road looked intriguing (it's in a northeast corner of the Mojave desert with Joshua trees) so when I passed a sign reading "Joshua Tree Road Scenic Backway" I decided to check it out. I turned onto the dirt road,  put the Tundra into 4-wheel-drive -- and scared-up  2 Mountain Bluebirds right off the bat.

County Route 91

I unfortunately couldn''t re-find the Bluebirds (I really want to take a photo of a Mountain Bluebird on top of a Joshua Tree; it's such an incongruous pairing)  but the scenery along the backway was inspiring, with the clouds making it more so. 

It was beautiful high-desert and canyon scenery, marred only by cows, another example of the "open range" you see so often in the West. While I couldn't re-find any Mountain Bluebirds, I did come across 2 Loggerhead Shrikes --

And  a Cactus Wren --

But I had pies to pick up, so I got back on County Road 91. The road goes through the Beaver Dam Mountains then descends, entering the Shivwits Indian Reservation ( a lot of signs reading "Warning: No Trespassing Or Stopping Without Permission"), then forking onto the road to Gunlock and Gunlock State Park. The State Park has a reservoir, so I scoped-out the water with my Canon 7D/500 f4 +1.4x TC --

Red-breasted Merganser

Male Common Goldeneye

The road winds along the Santa Clara River; here's the view of its canyon looking southwest back to the Beaver Dam Mountains --

The road ends at the intersection with Highway 18 and the town of Veyo, which consists of 2 gas stations, a few other businesses -- and Veyo's Pies (website http://www.veyopies.com).

I ordered 2 pies, one a blueberry for my friends OP and James as a going-away present, and an apple pie for myself, said I'd be back in a few hours to pick them up, and got a roast beef sandwich to go. (It was a GOOD sandwich.) From Veyo I took Hwy 18 north to Pine Valley Recreation Area in the Pine Valley Mountains. These mountains are a local landmark here in SW Utah; the tallest point is about 10,400 feet. The road to the recreation area goes to the small town of Pine Valley, nestled in a valley in the mountains --

There was still snow on the ground as the elevation of Pine Valley is 6000 feet  -- and it IS February, hard to believe with temperatures in the 70s at Overton --

I told the folks at Veyo's that I'd pick up the pies around 3pm but I forgot that I'd crossed a time zone coming into Utah, making it an hour later than my clock read, so I hurried back, picked up the pies, then headed back along the same route I'd taken in the morning. Just past the town of Gunlock I came across some curious residents --

And the clouds were becoming quite remarkable in appearance, creating an interesting counterpoint with the landscape --

Then I took the other end of the Joshua Tree Backway loop, hoping to end up back on County Route 91. The views as the road winded up Beaver Dam Mountains opened up to the east --

But I took the wrong fork on the unpaved, unmarked byway road, so instead of coming back to the same road I'd driven in the morning, I ended up in a residential area of St. George further east. But Interstate 15 was in view, so I headed back west to Overton, where the clouds put on a colorful sunset display --

I met my friends James Hager and OP for dinner at Sugar's, the only "real" restaurant here in Overton (there's also a MacDonalds -- and that's it) where we had Sam Adams beer, comfort food and good conversation -- and they had a blueberry pie for the next few days. Today it's a trip to Henderson, Nevada, but that's for tomorrow's post...