Gnats From HELL Really Bite, Literally

 The title says it all. OK, it really doesn't, but it is a true fact of life in Utah at this moment. Friday was the start of a 2 day jeep-concert-jeep trip to western Utah. The plan was simple. Jeep out to Wendover, rock and roll, then jeep back home. Sounds like a great idea. It. Was. Awesome. But, there was an issue the whole trip. We began at the Monarch Mine north of I-15 in Tooele County. I say north due to the fact there are 2 mines with the same name in the county. This trip we explored the area more in depth because we could. Last visit was during the winter and snow was everywhere. Friday, there was no snow but it was replaced by gnats. We opened the windows as we climbed up the mountain and before we knew what hit us, we were invaded on a mass scale by gnats. And they really wanted to make our day miserable. These little shits bit. And bit some more. They seemed to love our faces and we ended up closing the windows to save ourselves. When we reached the mines area and exited the vehicle, we were again under attack from the savages. It wasn't very fun!  We explored the area rather rapidly and soon moved on. 

 We crossed over the top and headed down to Marblehead. There were roads there I had wanted to follow and we ended up at the milk-can antenna. Some time in the past, this had been a high powered antenna for communication of some sort. Now, the can is filled with animal droppings and a couple of old switches. It has a really good view of the entire area and was worth the stop. I do wonder what it was used for and by whom. We finished by exploring another road to the top and again we were rewarded by spectacular views and of course, gnats. Now it was time to move on to Wendover. 

 On the bill for the evening was Grand Funk Railroad celebrating their 50th anniversary. 2 of the 3 originals still play with a new keyboardist and 2 new guitarists. Max Carl, pictured above wrote one of my favorite songs when he was with 38 Special. He was very friendly and answered a few questions for me on his time with them.

 The other guitarist is Bruce Kulick. I have seen him play years ago when he was playing lead for KISS. He was also kind enough to talk some KISS and get a foto with. I very rarely add fotos of myself in anything I do online, but this was the exception. The band kicked total ass and sounded awesome. They even threw in a surprise song that blew me away. Max wrote one of 38's number one songs and they played it that night. It wasn't my favorite but it was kinda cool. It was 80 minutes of good old kick ass rock and roll and they were great! Now, if they had only played my favorite song by 38 I would have called it the perfect show. Not to be rude, but I am thinking the average age there was between 65-70. What was scary was seeing these older farts acting like they were still 17, and some even dressed the part. One lady left a lasting impression that almost destroyed my eyesight. Note to self, do not wear spandex, fish net and leather when I am 70. 

 Saturday morning soon arrived and we were back on the road. South was our direction and Gold Hill was our first objective. Our first stop was the storage shed in the downtown district. Its contents are slowly disappearing over time but there are still hundreds of core samples located in the place on shelves. The samples are used to determine if there is ore in a specific area of the mine. The open box above shows typical samples from a certain area in a mine located nearby. I honestly don't know how they samples themselves are then tested, but they are kinda cool. I don't think I have seen an unbroken one out there in all my visits. 

 Standing at the front door I noticed that across the street was a saloon. In fact there were 3 buildings I had never noticed before. There were welcome signs out front but as the norm for Gold Hill, not a soul in sight. We walked up to the saloon and tried the door. It opened. There were no lights but it had the appearance of an old time saloon from the 1880's. The poker table above had real money on it. Seriously, there was money on the table. I was amazed. Someone is very trusting. There was even a notepad with names and what they had either won or lost. 

 Tending bar was none other than Donald Trump. Oh, and all those bottles you see are full. On the bar was a visitor sign in sheet. Of course we signed and I look back now and maybe I should have poured myself a shot for the road. There was also a huge John Wayne figure and a pool table. I could have spent a lot more time in there just checking out the antiques. It was amazing. Out side in front of building 2 was an air compressor with a note saying feel free to use it and just put it back when you are done. Building 3 looked like a store of some sort but it was locked and we couldn't get in. Wonder if it is an actual bar and they do sell drinks???  

 The trip now went east as we followed the Pony Express Trail. We stopped at a station to look around and came across Harold the Horny Toad. This was a time I wish I had a video recorder. This guy was interesting. He stopped where  you see him and froze. Shari picked a weed and began to scratch his back. He didn't run but he did go into his defense mode. The mode is frozen. She could put the weed under him and lift him off the ground. It was like he was petrified. They do that I am guessing to make themselves hard to swallow. I dunno. With all the horns and his killer tail, biting him probably wouldn't be pleasant. Since this was the first one I have ever seen, it was kinda cool to watch him. 

Further east in an area I wont mention the name of we ran into this mine. I am pretty damn sure it was a gold mine due to the fact it was basically an adit through pure quartz rock. It was pleasantly cool inside with no killer gnats and the roof was high enough to walk normal. It looked like it went on forever and I figure we were in 500 feet. Weird thing is, there really wasn't a tailings pile in front of it. Maybe it was used to bring ore out from a mine higher up on the mountain. I really don't know. I do know I have another reason to go back there and see where it goes and how far that is. We weren't really expecting to find something like this and we were a but unprepared. Next time! Look for all my fotos from this trip on my website and use the link above to get there. Jeep on my friends!