Ghost towns and Wildfires

We love to find and explore new things. Since we have lived in Southern Utah we have heard about the many mining Ghost towns in the area. We also bought a rock hounding book that lists all the gems and stones that can be found in the state.

A few weeks ago we decided to go exploring. About an hour to the NW of us is the remains of the mining town Frisco. We did some research before we left to learn the towns history. At its peak a little over a hundred years ago this town was populated by 6000 people.

We were able to find some amazing remains, these are the furnaces used to make charcoal for the mining equipment.

These are in remarkably good shape for being neglected and left to the elements.

With Kolby running by you get an idea of just how large these structures are.

And is it just me or isn't the brick work amazing?

We took a bunch of dirt roads looking for the rest of the town but were not able to find much. We did come across the old town cemetery. Very very strange to walk through a desert ghost town cemetery, with markers over 100 years old.

Our rock hounding adventure although fun for the boys to dig with shovels and buckets led to no huge discoveries. Mainly because I saw no polished gems lying on the ground so other then that I didn't know what I was looking for. Apparently we need to do a tad more research on rocks and what they look like in there natural state, before we find some good ones.


On our way back into town this was our view

A lightning strike fire started about 20 minutes to the South of us. It was left as a "controlled" burn but as soon as the winds picked up it quickly become out of control. Thankfully the fire is now out but we lived for a solid week in a smoke haze smelling like campfire.