Hidden Springs, Old Mines, and a Full Moon

Saturday, June 14, 2014
Today (and yesterday actually) we were all given an extra day off because the schedule hasn't been very full. So, I took advantage of the time I had and made the most of it! There was only one other wrangler off today, so we took out a couple of horses for a few hours in the morning and rode up into the mountains behind the ranch. We took some of the trails and went out to Hidden Springs, which is one of the trail rides we do here where guests ride out and they take sack lunches and spend some time at the spring before coming back to the ranch. We wandered around getting there and tied up the horses and went exploring a little bit too. There was a little cave at the top of the mountain that we hiked up to that was pretty cool too!

This is me and the sweet mare I took out, Cricket.

This is right above the spring. When I climbed up there, I got caught in a whole bunch of dry branches, but luckily made it out! haha (:

This is the view from where we climbed up to the little cave at the top of the mountain. If you look close, right in the middle you can see Cricket and Spider down by the trees. The next two pictures show it zoomed in a little closer each time.

This is zoomed in a little closer, the horses are in the upper right hand corner in the shade of the trees.

This is Cricket and Spider. I took the picture while clear up on the top of the mountain. I'd say the zoom was pretty good!

Another picture from the top of the mountain

This was on the way back to the ranch

I love this picture! This has got to be one of my very favorite viewpoints in life, from in between my horse's ears.

We ate lunch after we got back and then went shooting. I brought my pellet gun down with me and tried it out with the bb's. (It doubles as a BB Pellet gun) Later we went up Antimony canyon to find an old mine that used to be up there. Dude, the road up that canyon is like the dirt roads that are turnoffs up AF canyon. It was SOO bumpy! Thank goodness for pick-ups! After awhile it got so rough that we had to get out and walk the rest of the way up the road to get to the turnoff for the mine. We finally found it and hiked up and looked around a little bit inside. There are some really cool old shafts still inside. We didn't go in them, but did shine a flashlight down them!

On the Way up to the mine, we passed Cowboy Rock, which is a destination for one of the trail rides we also do up Antimony Canyon. On that ride, we also bring sack lunches and it takes about half the day for the whole thing. We stopped and took some pictures while we were up there. It's really a neat place!

This pictures is a little further away, but you can see the rock right in the middle of it.

Here it is, Cowboy Rock in all it's glory!

Okay, one more of the same picture, but with me in it (: 

This is up on top of the mountain we hiked up to get to the old mine

Let's face it, I had to take a selfie from up top at the mine (;

This is back down on the road when we were walking back to the pick-up! The road here doesn't look as bad, but we had to stop at one point because there was a huge, deep wash. There was no way we could have made it through so we parked and got out and walked probably about two miles up to the mine altogether, plus another two back, so… Anyway, on the left side, there is a river you can't see, it's pretty far down and tucked back kind of below the trees. I thought this was a really neat view.

Saturday was quite eventful! It didn't end after the mine. Usually when we have bigger groups, we have a live band come in a play. We do country swing and line dancing and it's a blast! But there's more! Around here, we do what we call "night rides" when there is a full moon. Guests can come on night rides as well if they schedule for it. We didn't take any guests out, but about seven of us took some horses out and went for a night ride. We left at about 10:30 Saturday night and got back around 12:30 am. Riding at night is one of the coolest feelings ever, especially when you run. (I wouldn't advise a night ride around American Fork haha) The horses can see better than you can and that night they had a lot of get-up-and-go! It's amazing what kind of energy the night can give to a horse! I really wanted to take pictures, but it was so dark still even with the moon and I didn't want to freak out the horses with a flash, so I decided to forego the pictures. But if you can imagine riding at night up in the mountains with a full moon, stars, coyotes in the distance, jack rabbits, and all sorts of other critters, you would just about have the right idea. It was super neat because when we headed out, the moon was mostly hidden behind some clouds and then when it came out, it was amazing!! I don't even have words to describe it. It felt like flying through the night. I'm in a living dream. That's all I can say!