We arrived here at Fort Deseret last night. I can hardly wait to get out and explore and of course, take a picture of Rider at the fort!! Although it is a little rainy this morning, I am hopeful that it will stop by the time we are ready to explore.
I did some research on the fort and this is what I found.
Fort Deseret was built by the Mormons in 1865 to protect the settlers during the Black Hawk Wars and to serve as a way station for weary travelers. At the time, the US army was too busy with the Civil War to protect settlers traveling west and advised the settlers to either move to a safe place or build a fort. With nearly 100 men (98- to be specific) working on the fort, it was completed in 18 days. Constructed of mud and straw, it's 10 foot high walls provided portals through which guns could be fired. It was approx 550 feet square. In the Spring of 1866, the fort protected area inhabitants when Black Hawk and his warriors arrived, demanding cattle. With the people and most of the livestock inside the fort, the Indian's threat was settled peacefully.
Most of the walls have fallen, however there is still a trace of where the actual fort stood. The east wall of the fort is the one that remains the most intact (as you can see from the pics) and still has the corner bastion intact as well. It was most interesting and Hogan ran around the place like he was possessed!!
We got the bus road ready and once again headed down the road. John wants to stop at the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs tonight and, if the weather is nice, maybe say for a day or two.
We travelled through "open range" as we soon discovered, as we came around a corner and there were several cows on the highway!! They didn't seem too concerned with us but being rather unpredictable, we slowed down - just in case one decided to cross in front of us. A bit further down the road, we saw a couple that hadn't quite made a successful crossing!!
The area we travelled through today is mostly desert with the Cricket Mountains and the Red Hills in the distance. We crossed one pass that was 6570 feet at the summit and it was here that we encountered a bit of rain which quickly turned into snow on the windshield. Once down to a lower level, it turned back to rain - thank you.
We eventually made it to the Gap and found a campsite and a bit of wood!! Bonus!! There was a cool nasty little wind blowing off the surrounding hills so a campfire was not really in order. We will have to watch the weather reports for this area to see if we will be staying or heading out again tomorrow. In the morning I will hit the internet and read up on the Gap and it's petroglyphs.
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