Babylon Mills at the Virgin River

A little known spot between Leeds and Toquerville is Babylon Mills. The remnants of what was once known as Stormont Mill in the town of Babylon is the only thing left standing here from the late 19th century, though the contemporary framework of a burned down dream home is also on the property. Citizens of the small, non-Mormon settled Babylon relied on the mill for their livelihood until the local mining industry took a dive, and the town was abandoned.
A graded dirt road takes you directly east from the I-15, descending gradually along cliff edges and tectonic uplift into a sandstone gulch carved by the waters of the Virgin. The river is beautiful and a moderate level, at least in January -  we hope to float it later this year, when the temps are a little warmer.
Expect some traffic! Plenty of other off-roaders and UTV riders when we were there on a Saturday, some heading to Babylon, some to Sand Cove or Babylon Arch. 4-wheel drive is not necessary on a dry day, but might be helpful in case things get hairy.

To get to the Mills: 


(1) Take exit 27 off the I-15 towards Toquerville. Take an immediate right onto the frontage road that runs parallel to the I-15 heading south. 
(2) Continue south, passing the small development of homes on your left.
(3) Take a left turn at 900 N Rd, heading east. 
(4) You'll pass some homes on the paved part of the road - ignore their driveways, and stay left on the main drag for a few miles.




(5) Continue past the turnoff to Sand Cove Campground.
(6) Look close and you'll see what appears to be an abandoned cabin to the east of the road here. It is worth taking a closer look at.
(7) You've made it to Babylon Mills! Stay on the track, and enjoy the incredible examples of tectonic and geologic work.

Strawberry Point: Better than Cedar Breaks NM

We spent a weekend up at Duck Creek with the fam from northern Utah to show them how much better this half of the state is. Renting a cabin in Duck Creek was a great idea.

Going on the trails in the middle of monsoon season was not. It's been raining every day for the past three weeks. Earlier in the day before we first went up, they closed SR-14 for flooding and debris in the road down the canyon. So what do we do when we first get up to the mountain? Get in the 4Runner and find the nearest trail. We went through a few puddles no problem until we see it.

This massive, eight foot long puddle that covered the entire trail across. Trekker backed up a few feet and gunned it. We drove through the puddle and started going down, and down, and down until we were under water to our windows. He never released the gas pedal, which helped us slowly and finally climb back up the other side. There's that minute it stops being fun and it turns into 'shit just got real' and it happened in the middle of the forest outside of Duck Creek when I thought we lost Trekker's car to the monsoonal rainstorm.

The views outside from Cascade Fall's Cave

This poor kid couldn't take another step haha

Anyway, Cedar Mountain is a good time.

But onto my favorite part. Strawberry Point is on the south side of Cedar Mountain, off a rough road at the edge of the Markagunt Plateau. I honestly think it's more impressive than it's western counterpart Cedar Breaks National Monument. The views down into Hog's Heaven and Zion Canyon are amazing, and I could spend all day there.

Gunlock and the Virgin River: Swimming Holes

I forced some people to go on little expeditions to find some decent swimming holes. It was successful. Here's a little video showing both. Enjoy:

Zion National Park- Pine Creek

Zion National Park is my favorite place ever and the best thing about it is that there are so many more hikes and things to see than just the big ones like Angel's Landing and the Narrows in the main canyon. Here's an example:

I love a good swimming hole. This one you can't see from the main road and have to climb down to it. Drive up towards the tunnel and park at the second switchback- there's a parking area at it, Climb down the barrier across the road from the parking, and follow the clearly defined trail down into the side canyon. It's pretty steep, but manageable.

As with other hikes in narrow canyons be careful of flash flooding! I am such a worrier about flash flooding, and since I love sharing morbid news articles, here's one from last September's heavy rains and flooding here in this very canyon. Always check the weather. The only thing I get super paranoid about down here.

Trekker having to talk me into jumping

View down towards the main canyon

                                     

Hancock Peak

Hancock Peak is more of a knoll at the top of Cedar Mountain. I did this hike back in 2014 with a friend and the entire hike was in a thick forest with limited sunlight. Between October 2014 and September 2015, beetles wreaked havoc on the trees and when I took Trekker to it, the landscape was far different. Dead trees were everywhere, along with fields of chopped trees from the Forest Service trying to stop the spread of the bugs. We didn't get nearly as far in October due to being in direct sunlight the entire time, but we ended at one of the ponds fed by a volcanic spring which is still worth the walk.

On the way up from Cedar City, you do pass Cedar Breaks National Monument on SR14-3. It's a small monument, but worth the 10 minute stop

The Hancock Peak trail head is a few miles past Cedar Breaks, literally on the side of the road. Park on the pull-off and start the climb toward the knoll! 

The trail is clearly cut in the grass but as you get closer to the knoll, you just have to pay attention to the cairns. Since there's really not much of a forest there for a while, the scenery is about the same until you get to the pond. It's a cool little hike if you have a free afternoon. You can also find arrowheads all over the area, so keep an eye out.

It looks like this the whole way :(

:( pt.2

Grafton Ghost Town

The nicest, most non-threatening ghost town ever. What else is prettier than a town built on beautiful green fields with huge red cliffs on both sides of them?

It actually wasn't that great of a place to live in at the time. The first attempt to build Grafton was in 1859 when Brigham Young sent young families on 'cotton missions' to southern Utah to build settlements and try to grow cotton. It was successful a little further southwest in Santa Clara, but the first attempt in the Zion area, Wheeler, was washed away in a night after a week long flood in 1862.

Wheeler was moved a mile upstream and renamed Grafton, and within 2 years there were 28 families and 168 people. After multiple floods that eroded their fields, Navajo attacks, and a disease outbreak, the town was completely abandoned by 1930. For some reason, people thought moving to Rockville across the river would be better, even though the town is built right underneath a cliff with many, many unstable boulders, and things like this happen. I guess you have to decide which is worse, death by an Indian raid, or death by a massive boulder falling on you as you're eating dinner. They just couldn't win.

To get there, pay attention to the right hand side of SR-9 through Rockville. There's a sign that points toward Grafton right behind an older house. Turn down that road and cross this one-car bridge. The road turns into gravel soon after this point.

The road will curve back west, following the Virgin River. You'll pass a lot of green pastures where cows and hippies usually hang out in the summer. After maybe half a mile, you'll come upon the Grafton Cemetery. You can go in and look at the worn headstones. Fortunately there's a plaque that tells you who is under each stone. A portion of the 84 people buried at least. The southeast corner is reserved for members of the Paiute tribe that became friends with the residents. In 1866, thirteen people died from Navajo attacks and a diphtheria epidemic. There's also two graves for 14 and 13 year old girls that died after the swing they were on broke. I think that sounds like a cover-up. Trekker says people were just more fragile back then. You decide.

Follow the road further west and you end up where the main part of town used to be. The first building you come to is the school house. Built in 1886, it was used also for church and social events.

Next to it is Alonzo Russel's house. He had 4 wives, so understandably he needed a larger house to deal with that kind of chaos.

He even built his third wife, Louisa, a log cabin across the road. You can walk through the cabin and think about how bad raising 6 kids in a 3 room cabin with a low ceiling would be.

It's really a place worth finding if you're out by Zion. Plus you can tell people you've been where they filmed a part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, that'll impress them.