So this Thanksgiving with the in laws I decided to take along my mountain bike, and see if it would get warm enough for a ride. Luckily there is less than an inch of snow on the ground here, instead of the foot of snow in Salt Lake. Just before cabin fever set in this morning, I managed to sneak out for a ride as Karen got the dinner ready.

Normally the hills above Beaver are hot, dry and uninviting, but I think this is the perfect time of year to explore them. It was below freezing so the ground was firm and the snow wasn’t bad if I stayed in the tracks.

Anyway, I did a 15 mile loop up Baker canyon to North Creek, and then back to Baker along the ridges. The cabin fever was practically cured by the time I got back, and even better, I was ready to pig out on some Thanksgiving dinner.

Since the Conference issue of the Ensign is out now, I thought I better get these photos up while anyone still cares. The weather was amazing this year, I can’t remember a time when it was so pleasant. Anyway, here is what was published:

I was happy to see this shot printed full page (pg. 63). The lights in the fountains were already off when I got there Saturday morning, and I didn’t think I would make it in time Sunday morning either, but I managed to get about 3 frames off before they shut off. Luckily I had my camera ready to go, and my spot picked out from the day before, so I literally plopped it down and before I could make sure the exposure and focus was right, the lights were off.

Even though I shoot quite a few photos of the temple during the conference, I usually only see one printed. It was nice to see this one on page 20.

This shot was cropped down a bit and published on page 3. There is a nice little father/daughter moment going on there that I think they wanted to focus on.

I shoot a lot in this location and it finally paid off. I love the diagonal shadow across their chests, perfectly parallel with their lit faces.

So, if your not a teenage subscriber to the New Era, you might not know that there is also a conference article in there after each conference. This shot was used on page 13 of the New Era.

While I was pulling up the November New Era, I happened to notice that the cover of last May’s New Era looked familiar. I don’t know how I missed it, but that is my photo on the cover. Very cool.

So, that is what was published. Here are a few more favorites from the weekend.

Well, that’s it. Thanks for looking!

This Halloween the Photo/Design/Events teams joined up for a group “Lord of the Rings” costume. It was pretty freaking awesome, and yes, we won the prestigious 1st place for a group costume and the accompanying pizza party. Finally.

We even had enough of the cast to put together a short trailer, roughly based on the original “Fellowship of the Ring” trailer. Thanks to Brian Pitt’s sweet video skills, the trailer looks better than any of us could have hoped for. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

I have to say the best part was being able to walk around work all morning in a skin tight nude suit and tattered loincloth. It was kind of like the dream where you show up to school and you realize you are naked. Pretty awkward. You can thank Becca (Saruman) for that. When we started throwing the idea around a couple months ago Becca came over and asked if I would dress up as Gollum, probably because she thought I was the only one that would actually do it. I reluctantly agreed, only because I’ve always wanted to make a nude suit. First, because I think it would be awesome to be Mr. Slim Goodbody sometime. Second, as an avid cyclist and with family in the San Francisco Bay area, I may need to participate in the World Naked Bike Ride sometime (caution, men’s naked butts shown here), but I’m not sure I would want to actually be naked. Anyway, once I factored in the nude suit, it seemed like a good idea. I haven’t been fired yet either, so, it looks like everything worked out.

Now how about those close-ups you’ve all been waiting for!

My advice to anyone wanting to try this at home is to buy a mask. Not only will it help you look more like Gollum, but will hide your identity too. The bald cap was fine, but it sure made my huge ears stick out even more than usual. Someone actually asked me, “are those your real ears?”

Anyway, now that you have all thrown up in your mouth a little, here’s some more normal people.

Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas.

Gollum and Frodo fight over the ring. The velour track suit makes another appearance. Last year it was sported by Maury Ballstein from our Zoolander group costume.

The Ringwraiths.

Gandolf and Saruman.

The elves. Generic elf, Galadriel, Legolas, and Arwen.

And the hobbitses. Samwise, Meri, Pippin, and Frodo.

For the final day of our trip, we drove through the San Rafael Swell. We had already hike 14 miles with 4 little kids in the previous 3 days, so it was nice to drive to most of our destinations this day. We started off from our hotel in Green River and drove up 1-70 through the southern reef of the swell. We then took the dirt road up north through the swell. First stop was the San Rafael River bridge. We played in the water and the kids enjoyed seeing a fairly large spider that could run across the top of the river water. I’ve never seen anything like that. Then we went to the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph panel. I’ve visited this panel on many occasions, and it was still impressive.

I was even more interested in the soft canyon light, raking across the panel. Maybe I’ve seen too many rock art panels in my day.

Next stop was an unmarked dinosaur footprint for those who know where to look. My mom wasn’t convinced, since it was by itself, even though the Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur quarry is only a few miles away. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry “contains the densest concentration of Jurassic-aged dinosaur bones ever found.” (Thanks website). We didn’t have time to stop on this trip, but next time we will. My kids love dinosaurs.

The next stop was supposed to be the highlight of the trip, but ended up being the most disappointing. I first visited the government caves in 1998 with Kristin and some friends on an Institute trip. We were going to the College of Eastern Utah at the time. The main cave was originally well over 1000 feet long. It is officially called the MK test tunnels or Morrison-Knudsen test tunnels, named after the contractors that were hired to build the tunnels. Apparently the government used this site to study how underground caves respond to bombing on the surface. The cave was built around the time that the NORAD command center was planned and built. The cave had at least 2 large skylights courtesy of the explosives set off on the surface. There isn’t much written about the project, but there is this article I found that describes the “making safe” project that ruined the area. Anyway, this cave used to be awesome. We were looking forward to spending some time inside, cooling down on a hot day. There is a huge chamber just 20 or 30 feet from this entrance. You could explore the whole cave without a flashlight, because of the holes in the ceiling. I felt like a relative died when I saw that the cave had been closed off. It was the same kind of disheartening feeling experienced when Nutty Putty Cave was shut down. I do understand that the man made hole was a liability for the BLM and since it was man made, there shouldn’t be a problem destroying it, but still, kind of disappointing. When will our society realize that risk is what makes some things fun and exciting, and that we can’t take it all away in the name of safety. As far as I know, no one was ever killed or injured when site seeing at the cave. What ever happened to the “Enter at your own risk” signs? Now we just shut it down and destroy it so that no one can possibly file a lawsuit. Anyway, it’s been a rough year with my 2 favorite caves being shut down.

If you never got to see the killer caves before they were shut down, then don’t worry. There is still an attraction worth visiting the area for. In the photo above you may be able to spot some phallic artwork among the graffiti (Right next to the Pac-Man style head). This area now boasts the largest collection of phallic artwork in the world, some that are easily 20 feet long. Without even trying, I could see more than 7 of the masterpieces from one vantage point as we walked down the earth ramp to the cave entrance. Man, some Emery County kids really destroyed the place with a few cans of spray paint, and they sure hate some girl named “Sunny.” I’ve always loved the San Rafael Swell for its wildness and openess. This was starkly contrasted by the highly regulated Escalante-Staircase national monument that we had just visited. I hate the rules and regulations of the National Parks and Monuments, but I also hate the recklessness of the visitors of the wild and free places. Too many people destroy a place by just visiting it, just as fast as a few people destroy a desolate place that few care about. It seems like the best way to protect a place is just to make it as remote and difficult to enter as possible. At least drunk, high school kids won’t visit very often. Anyway, I’ll quit ranting now before I get started on Nutty Putty Caves.

The last stop of the day was the Wedge Overlook.

This has been called the Little Grand Canyon. It’s an impressive site and a good stop if you are on the driving tour. We would have enjoyed it more but the rain clouds were moving in right as we noticed the front tire on our van was flat. As I put the spare on I realized that it was flat too. I’m glad my parents were there or we would have ruined our spare driving in to town. My dad and I threw the tire in his pathfinder and raced to Castle Dale. We made it to the only tire shop in town, about 5 minutes before they closed on a Friday night. The guys at NAPA just about sent us away, but reluctantly decided to take a look at it. There was just a small hole that could take a plug, so they decided to fix it for us. I am so glad they did, because that saved us a long trip to Price to figure out plan B. Thanks Castle Dale NAPA Auto Parts! 5 bucks later we were on our way back to the overlook to see if any of the kids had gone over the edge yet. We got back in record time thanks to the craziest driving I have ever seen my dad do, and everyone was still safe and sound. That is until we started loading up and Keaton took a spill and split his head open. Don’t forget, Berkley got stitches on the first day of our trip. By this point we were too tired for another hospital visit, so we bandaged him up and gave him the superglue treatment when we got home. Would I do it again? Heck yes. I love spending time with these rugrats as much as I love Southern Utah.

On our 3rd day Grandma and Grandpa Davis joined us for a hike to Upper Calf Creek falls. I hadn’t ever been there, and I’m not sure why. The trail is shorter than the lower falls, but much steeper. The falls are about the same height, and there is a giant pool at the bottom, but there isn’t as much room to spread out. Luckily there are way fewer visitors as well. Another nice feature is that it is only a short side trip to the top of the falls, and is easily done in one trip. On top there are some more pools for swimming and even some cliff jumping. I think this would be a great place to camp and do some exploring.

My hiking buddies, Jaxon and Parker, wait for the rest of the adults to catch up. We had already hiked over 10 miles in the 2 previous days, and my kids just kept going. Even Berkley the 2 year old hiked a lot of this trail. You can see in this photo how steep the drop is in to the upper falls. The trailhead is on the ridge at the top of this photo. This is only 1/3 of the way down. The kicker is that it is downhill on the way there and uphill back to the car. Surprisingly, Keaton (our 4 year old), made it back first. He is so determined and competitive, he wasn’t about to let his older brothers beat him back.

This is about the point where the trail forks and you either go to the top of the falls or the bottom. It’s only another 1/4 of a mile or so either way. I loved the layer of iron deposit or whatever that was that kind of erodes out on top of all the sandstone formations.

The Upper Calf Creek falls are just as spectacular as the lower falls. I’m sure if there was as nice of a beach to play at as the lower falls, these would be just as overrun with people.

Even without the beach, the swimming hole is nice and deep, just not so kid friendly.

There is another awesome swimming hole at the top of the falls, especially if you like some tame cliff jumping. There is a 15-20 foot drop at the top of the pool that you can jump in to 20 feet of water. I did hit bottom once, but it was only a tap, and I was pretty far off to the side where it is much shallower. A group of scouts joined us here and it was fun daring them to jump. There is still no beach here, but there is a shallow end that is only about 3 feet deep. When we visited the water was clear and fairly warm.

Even though the trail is mostly steep slickrock, I think it was almost easier to hike than the sandy trail to the lower falls. The iron deposits make awesome patterns in the rock.

Here’s looking in to the canyon, and Parker giving his mom a heart attack for standing too close to the edge.

This is the view from the ridge near the trailhead. The falls are way down in the canyon where those clouds are casting their shadows. You can just see Kristin and her pregnant belly coming up the trail. Hey, if my 7 month pregnant wife, and 2, 4, 6, and 7 year old boys can hike this one, then it can’t be that bad. The worst part is the rough quarter mile long road off the main highway to the trailhead. Bring a high clearance vehicle or plan on walking a little further than you planned.

From here, we took off through some of the most unpopulated parts of Southern Utah, through Capitol Reef, past Factory Butte and the Henry Mountains, and on to Green River to spend the night in a hotel. The next day we spent in the San Rafael Swell, before heading home.