Road Trip Day 6: Childhood Roads

Back on the road this morning, giving my time in St. George a blessing after breakfast with my mother, I set out for California-- with a detour to Pine Valley, Utah, before I hopped back on the interstate.

Nestled in the tops of mountains @ 6,500 feet and just 32 mi. north of St. George, Pine Valley is a well-kept secret for vacationers and summer residents who like alpine beauty, small campgrounds and quiet small town appeal. It's temperature year round is about 20 degrees cooler than St. George. Mormons settled the valley in the late 1800's and built a church in 1868 which has been in continuous use since then. There are a few residents who stay year round, but the winters scare most sunbirds off. No schools or medical facilities exist, yet a small post office and general store general store have been there for decades. A cemetary, a restaurant and cafe added to that...and that's about it.

One of the earliest pictures of my father was of him as a 5 year old sporting over-alls and a straw hat in Pine Valley. His family would visit there during the summers. It was an all day trip for his family from St. George in a model T, filled with kids, provisions for several days and extra tires for the expected blowouts one would have enroute to and from the mountain paradise. When my dad grew older, hunting trips with all the males in the family brought food to their table. On occaision, my father would tell me that his memories of Pine Valley were what got him through the toughest times of the War; they were what kept him hanging in there when things were unusually grisly and bleak.

The road to Pine Valley climbs over 3,000 feet from St. George to its final destination. Redrock, sage and chaparral give way to several extinct volcanoes in Diamond Valley, progressing to cedars and lava flow in little town of Veyo, finally giving way to cedars, ponderosa and pinion pines with the metamorphic rock of the mountains that ring the valley. Signal Peak is the tallest of the Pine Valley Mountains at over 10,000 feet.

Enroute, I was surprised to find that much of what I experienced in my childhood had been built up in the last several years, both in roadway, new communities and homes. Hell, in some ways the road resembled a super highway compared to what I travelled in my childhood-- until I turned east at Central, UT for the last 8 miles. Here the road was well worn, as narrow as I ever remembered it to be, with cracks and small plants growing out of them.

"Now here's a road I remember", I thought as I breathed a sigh of relief.

Arriving in Pine Valley, I found it was a comfortable 75 degrees midday, green and even more beautiful than I had ever remembered it. Although there were new cabins built around the periphery of the town, the original homes were still there, folks were still taking care of their property and there were no cows grazing in the middle of town as they were when I was a child. My father had loved the peaceful, quiet energy of this place which was one of the reasons he retired here over 30 years ago, about the time I and my brother left for college.

I took a while to wind through the original town, stopping to look at 2 previous residences my parents had owned before selling them and moving to St. George just 6 months before my father's death. A few days earlier, my brother had mentioned that one of the several empty lots purchased by my father (actually owned now by my mother) would be just the right size for the 3 siblings to pull trailers on to in the summers and spend some vacation time there. He described the lot location to me as it had never been pointed out before. When I arrived there, I found it to be the same piece of ground I'd had recurring dreams about during the past year. I'd remember waking from the dreams thinking "Why am I dreaming about this part of town? Dad and Mom's property was north of this place." Now I know at the answer to at least the 1st part of my question. We'll see what follows.

I checked out old sledding runs, still intact, viewed the creek where my family pulled out 104 trout one summer and noted that the old ranger station had been turned into a visitor/history center. For old time's sake I stopped in at the General Store, bought an ice cream bar and continued up the Valley toward the resevoir where many memories were made with my family.

All too soon it was time to leave as I still had 6 hours to drive the desert to California, through Las Vegas and Death Valley. So I promised the Valley I would return, gave thanks and headed down the road.

I stopped at the Veyo Pie Shop, 1/2 way to I-15 to pick up a fresh, homemade peach pie for my daughter and her family in Cherry Valley, which was my final destination today. After giving a hug and a bottle of wine to my cousin Sharlene in St. George, I hopped on the interstate and headed toward the Virgin River Narrows, gateway to the Arizona Strip that I-15 crosses toward Vegas. The Narrows: from what I understand it cost $1000 a foot to complete in some places. Winding through spectacular rock and river, it's one of the most scenic pieces of highway in that region. I remember a story my dad told of taking our 1973 caddilac, setting the cruise control on 70 m.p.h. and "chirping the tires around the corners" going through the Narrows.

I stopped for gas in North Las Vegas and continued down the corridor that leads through the center of town and by the glittering Strip. I remember when my family travelled via rambler station wagon in the 60's on a road that went through the center of town, by the Frontier, Stardust and made a turn at a big pencil on the front of an office supply store on our way through and out of this town... LONG before the Interstate.

The desert was cooler today, only getting into the low 100's at the hottest. My Jeep did admirably, climbing thousands of feet up and down in the heat. The last climb was Cajon Pass in California, which descended into the Inland Empire. I-15 to I-215 to the 210 to the 10 to Cherry Valley. Warm hugs and little feet welcomed me to the home of my daughter, Ruthe and her family.