Salt Creek Fire

On our way home from Cedar City, we decided to take a little detour and went on I-15 from Cedar City to Nephi so we could check out the Salt Creek Canyon fire. Highway 132 just opened this morning so we wanted to get a first hand tour of the devastation. The first three pictures you see we took coming out of Salt Creek Canyon (toward Fountain Green). There was a helicopter there picking up water to dump on flames way at the top of the canyon on the south side--up by the red cliffs you may remember seeing to the south when leaving Nephi.

These last three pictures were taken as we were driving through the canyon from Nephi to Fountain Green. We weren't allowed to stop--there were signs everywhere to not stop or go up any side roads. They were all closed. In fact, they had Search and Rescue people, ambulances, highway patrolmen, and local authorities blocking each side road. Firefighters were just off the road taking care of hot spots. Curt did a good job taking these pictures as we were moving. I still don't know for sure about my brother Gary's property up at Thousand Oaks. He did have his trailer out before the fire but had left a generator, chain saw, and some other things there. This really was a huge fire--most of the canyon is blackened. Most of the old KOA campground is gone. The other campground just east of it doesn't look like it was touched (as you can see in the 2nd photo). The firefighters were also able to save the homes down in the canyon, thank heavens.

Cedar City Trip

Curt and I went to Cedar City for July 24th. We stayed Sunday night (July 22) at Lacey and Landon's apartment. We drove around and looked at new trucks, Lacey cooked pork chops for dinner with homemade cookie dough ice cream (yummy!), and then we watched a movie, "Stranger Than Fiction." In the morning she cooked breakfast, we watched another movie, "Employee of the Month," and then Chris took us all up Cedar mountain (except for Amanda who is so close to delivery it is difficult for her to ride in the truck very long). It is beautiful up there! On Monday (July 23) we stayed at Chris and Amanda's apartment. She cooked chicken and biscuits--it was yummy too! We watched "Premonition" on Monday night and then we watched "The Pursuit of Happyness" on Tuesday morning. Landon and Lacey watched the movies with us. The two pictures were from our trip up the canyon--we saw a flock of wild turkeys and a hawk. We also visited Chris's friend from work, Kirby, at his cabin. Amanda wasn't able to go with us since she is so close to delivery. It is hard for her to ride bumpy places. Soon it will be over, and little Cody will be here for all of us to spoil. It was so much fun to get to visit our kids down south. We will be visiting Cashelle and A.J. in about a week in Tooele. We need to get our visits in before school starts (yuck!).

Firepit

Curt built a new firepit in our backyard. It's going to be fun to use it. These two pictures were without it completely finished--he filled in the outside with red lava rock which really finished it off.

Day of the Fire

On Saturday, July 8, Curt and Dave worked on his truck all morning to replace the power steering pump. So, in the afternoon, we went up the canyon to visit with Brice and Misty who were camping on the Upper Burnt Hill. On the way up we heard the bad news about the massive fire that started by Beaver. The last two pictures on this post were taken from the canyon. You can really see the smoke. It was awful when we got down in the valley. The top two pictures are of Athena and Christian on the 4-wheeler. He thought it was a blast!

Up in the Mountains

Curt went up the mountains with Wally the other day on their 4-wheelers and caught these two awesome photos of a rainstorm in the distance.